imoN 


|!l!l||i 


BV  2785  .G8  1906 

Grose,  Howard  B.  1851-1939 

The  incoming  millions 


THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 


HOME    MISSION 
STUDY    COURSE 

Each  volume  12mo,  cloth  50c.  net;  paper  30c.  net 


I.   Under  Our  Flag 

A  study  of  conditions  in  America  from  the 
standpoint  of  Woman's  Home  Misionary 
work,  by  ALICE  M.  GUERNSEY. 

"A  text-book  of  sifted  studies  for  home  miEsion 
classes  and  meetings,  with  suggestions  for  various 
uses  of  the  material  it  contains." — Congre^atioiialist. 

1.  The    Burden  of  the  City 

By  ISABEIvLE  HORTON. 

"Settlement  Work,  the  Modern  Church  and  its 
Methods,  the  Deaconess  in  City  Missions,  Children's 
Work,  and  Co-operation.  It  constitutes  a  wanual  nf 
practical  philanthrophy  worthy  cf  study  iu  all 
churches." — The  Outlook. 

3.  Indian  and  Spanish  Neighbors 

By  JULIA  H.  JOHNSTON. 

"Full  of  information  with  which  every  Chii.stifn 
patriot  should  be  familiar  in  regaid  to  the  Indiar.s; 
origin,  tribes,  characteristics,  ti  viiri  n  er.t,  1:7- 
guage.  religion,  wrongs  and  rights  etc;  plsi>  1  f  the 
Spanish  speaking  people  in  New  Mexico,  Arizona, 
California,   Porto   Rico." — Olive  Trees. 

JUST  ISSUED 

4.  The   Incoming  Millions 

By  HOWARD  B.  GROSE,  D.  D. 

To  the  spiritual  need  of  these  incomers  and  their 
influence  upon  us  as  individuals  and  as  a  uation  Dr. 
Grose  has  given  much  study. 

Fleming    H.    Revell   Company 

PUBLISHERS 


THE  IXCOMIXG  FLOOD  OF  ALIENS 


// 

pj-pi^ 

Home    Mission    Study    Course 
\Inter-denominational~\ 


The  Incoming  Millions 


BY    y 

HOWARD  B.  GROSE 


"  The  stranger  that  dwelleth  with  you  shall  be  unto  you  as  one 
bom  among  you,  and  thou  shalt  love  him  as  thyself." 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Revell    Company 

London        and        Edinburgh 


Copyriglit,  1906,  by 
FLEMING   H.   KHVHLL  COMPANY 


Second  Edition. 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicai^o  :  80  Wabash  Avenue 
Toronto  :  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London  :  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh  :     100     Princes    Street 


TO  THE 

CHRISTIAN  WOMEN  OF  AMERICA, 

WHOSE  MISSION  IT  IS  TO  HELP  SAVE 

OUR  COUNTRY  BY  EVANGELIZING  THE  ALIEN  WOMEN 

AND  TEACHING  THEM  THE  IDEALS  OF 

THE  AMERICAN  HOME 


NOTE 

The  author  wishes  to  acknowledge  his  spe- 
cial obligations  to  his  son,  Howard  Bristol  Grose, 
whose  valued  collaboration  has  made  the  produc- 
tion of  this  volume  possible. 


PREFACE 

A  MINISTER  from  a  western  city,  on  the  return 
voyage  from  Europe,  was  sitting  one  morning  on 
the  deck  with  a  company  of  friends.  As  the  bells 
sounded  for  eleven  o'clock,  a  cultured  lady  of  the 
party  rose  and  excused  herself  on  the  ground  of 
an  engagement.  He  noted  that  she  passed  down 
to  the  steerage  deck,  and  his  curiosity  was 
aroused.  The  next  day,  at  the  same  hour,  she 
left  the  company  with  the  same  excuse,  and  was 
not  seen  again  until  dinner  time.  This  became 
a  daily  occurrence,  until  the  last  day  of  the  voy- 
age, which  had  been  prolonged  by  head  winds. 
When  the  bells  struck,  the  lady  did  not  leave,  and 
there  was  a  look  of  sadness  on  her  face.  He  ven- 
tured to  ask  what  the  strange  engagement  was 
that  had  called  her  away  so  regularly,  and  she 
told  him  her  story. 

Watching  the  steerage  passengers  as  they 
boarded  the  steamship,  the  lady  saw  an  aged 
woman,  evidenlly  an  invalid,  brought  on  board  in 
a  wheel  chair.  Something  in  the  sweet  and  pa- 
tient face  attracted  her,  and  as  she  thought  of 
the  many  lonely  hours  the  invalid  would  probably 
pass  in  the  trying  conditions  of  the  steerage,  she 
resolved  to  go  down  and  see  if  she  could  be  of 
3 


4  PREFACE 

service,  perhaps  by  reading  a  little  while  each 
day.  She  found  that  the  invalid  was  an  Italian 
and  knew  no  English ;  she  was  alone,  on  her  way 
to  join  her  sons  in  America,  who  had  sent  for  her. 
The  lady  knew  very  little  Italian,  but  made  up 
her  mind  to  learn  at  least  enough  to  speak  some 
words  of  comfort  and  sympathy.  She  managed 
to  find  an  Italian  Testament  and  a  lesson  book, 
and  began  her  studies.  The  next  day  the  invalid's 
face  beamed  with  delight  as  she  heard  herself 
saluted  in  Italian,  and  a  new  bond  of  sympathy 
was  at  once  established.  Then  there  began  an 
exchange  of  languages,  each  acting  as  teacher 
and  pupil.  The  lady  read  a  verse  in  the  Italian 
Testament,  then  in  the  English,  and  soon  taught 
the  Italian  to  repeat  the  verse,  "For  God  so  loved 
the  world."  Each  day  the  lessons  continued,  with 
ever  growing  interest  to  both.  Suddenly  the  in- 
valid grew  worse,  and  in  a  few  hours  she  passed 
away.  Her  body  was  buried  at  sea,  and  the  lady 
was  the  only  first-class  passenger  who  knew  of 
the  circumstance.  But,  as  she  told  the  minister, 
she  had  the  unspeakable  satisfaction  of  having 
been  able,  in  those  few  days,  not  only  to  cheer  the 
heart  of  a  lonely  woman,  but  to  learn  enough 
Italian  to  make  known  to  her  the  love  of  Jesus; 
and  she  saw  her  die  with  firm  faith  in  him  as  her 
Saviour.  It  was,  said  the  lady,  the  most  beautiful 
and  blessed  experience  of  her  life. 

"That,"  said  the  minister,  "was  the  example  of 
unselfish  Christian  service  that  put  me  to  shame. 


PREFACE  5 

What  thought  had  I  given  to  the  immigrants 
packed  in  the  steerage?  This  woman  had  been 
a  ministering  angel,  and  had  led  a  soul  to  life, 
while  the  rest  of  us  had  followed  only  our  own 
pleasure." 

If  the  alien  women  among  the  incoming  mil- 
lions are  evangelized,  it  will  be  done  by  American 
women  who  are  filled  with  this  Christlike  spirit 
of  personal  service. 

Howard  B.  Grose. 
"Briarcliff  Manor,  N.  Y,, 
September,  1906. 


FROM    THE    EDITORIAL 
COMMITTEE 

For  this,  the  fourth  volume  of  the  Inter-de- 
nominational series  of  Home  Mission  text-books, 
the  Committee  in  charge  expects  a  welcome 
even  beyond  that  given  to  preceding  issues.  The 
theme  that  it  presents,  one  of  vital  importance  to 
every  American  citizen,  is  of  intense  interest  to 
Home  Missionary  women,  whether  or  not  the 
society  with  which  they  are  connected  is  engaged 
in  definite  immigrant  work.  More  and  more 
it  is  becoming  evident  that  we  must  "save  America 
to  save  the  world." 

The  Committee  takes  special  pleasure  in  intro- 
ducing the  author  of  this  book — Rev.  Howard  B. 
Grose,  the  Editorial  Secretary  of  the  American 
Baptist  Home  Mission  Society — to  the  large  con- 
stituency of  Home  Mission  workers  that  it  repre- 
sents. The  value  of  the  work  done  by  Mr.  Grose 
needs  no  commendation  from  us.  It  speaks  for 
itself. 

With  other  and  admirable  text-books  prepared 
for  the  young  people  and  the  children,  surely  the 
Christian  thought  of  the  nation  may  be  focussed 
upon  the  problems  of  immigration.  If  these 
thoughts  are  followed  by  commensurate  effort, 
personal  and  public,  private  and  official,  to  "cast 
up  a  highway  for  our  King,"  we  can  ask  no  more. 
6 


CONTENTS 


I.  The  Invading  Army 9 

II.  Letting  In  and  Shutting  Out     ...       33 

III.  The  Immigrants  in  Their  New  Home         .       56 

IV.  Americanizing  the  Aliens    .         .        .         .82 
V.  Woman's  Wo;;k  for  Alien  Women      .         .     106 

VI.  The  America  of  To-morrow         .        .        .129 
VII.  Work   of  Women's   Home   Missionary   So- 
cieties   ^50 

Appendix ^73 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING  PAGE 

The  Incoming  Flood  of  Aliens     ....  Title 

The    Making    of    Americans    in    Our    Mission 

Schools 36 

A  Culture  Class  in  a  New  York  Mission           .  62 

A  Mission  Industrial  Club— The  Cooking  Class  iro 

A  Russian  Wedding  in  a  Protestant   Mission  in 

Pennsylvania 124 

An  Italian  Missionary  and  His  Family       .        .  136 

Sunday  School  Picnic  of  an  Italian  Protestant 

Church  in  Buffalo 156 

An   Italian   Church    Built  on  the  Roof  of  a 

Workman's  House  in  Massachusetts      .        .  162 


THE    INVADING    ARMT 

I.    AT  THE  GATEWAY  OF  THE  REPUBLIC 

THE  casual  sightseer  who  takes  the  govern- 
ment ferry  from  the  Battery  to  Ellis 
Island*  finds  little  in  the  outward  ap- 
pearance of  the  immigrant  station  to  excite  his 
curiosity  or  admiration.  The  florid  brick  pavilion 
with  its  little  roof-gardens  and  its  four  oriental 
towers  might  be,  so  far  as  looks  go,  a  skating- 
rink,  a  riding  academy,  or  a  palace  of  machinery 
at  a  State  fair.  It  seems  almost  too  great  a 
stretch  of  the  imagination  to  call  this  the  Gate- 
way of  the  Republic. 

But  once  inside,  comfortably  seated  in  the  lofty 
gallery  which  commands  a  full  view  of  the  main 
floor,  the  visitor  begins  to  reconstruct  his  opinion. 
In  the  centre  of  the  hall  is  a  landing  whence 
stairs  lead  up  from  the  floor  below,  and  across 
this  landing  he  sees  file  a  continuous  procession  of 
men,  women,  and  children.  His  eye  travels  along 
the  line  to  where  the  marchers  are  divided  alter- 
nately into  two  thinner  lines.     Here  he  sees  alert, 

*  The  place  where  immigrant  arrivals  at  the  port  of 
New  York  are  inspected. 

9 


10     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

keen-eyed  surgeons  and  inspectors  whose  business 
is  to  sort  out  the  physically  unfit.  They  do  a  deal 
of  poking  and  prodding  in  a  very  short  space 
of  time,  and  run  their  hands  rapidly  through  the 
immigrant's  hair  to  detect  favus,  the  contagious 
scalp  disease.  If  things  are  not  quite  to  the  in- 
spector's liking  he  puts  a  chalk  mark  on  the  im- 
migrant's coat  or  shawl.  A  little  farther  on, 
stand  surgeons  in  the  uniform  of  the  United 
States  Marine  Hospital  Service,  who  very  deftly 
turn  up  the  immigrant's  eyelids  to  see  if  they  can 
discover  trachoma,  the  eye  scourge  of  south- 
eastern Europe  and  Asia.*  At  this  point  the 
lines  are  again  divided :  those  who  bear  the  chalk 
marks  are  turned  to  the  left  and  herded  together 
in  a  "pen"  at  the  end  of  the  hall  (with  its  steel 
netting  it  somewhat  resembles  a  huge  seine  and 
the  visitor  decides  that  it  might  not  inaptly  be 
called  Uncle  Sam's  drag-net)  ;  the  main  stream 
passes  on  to  the  right  by  a  matron  who  searches 
the  faces  of  the  women  and  girls.  She  is  there  to 
discover,  if  possible,  and  turn  back  the  woman  of 
loose  character.  The  procession  moves  past  her 
and  at  last  is  divided  and  dispersed  through  the 
dozen  or  so  long  lanes  which  lead  to  the  desks  of 
the  inspectors  who  put  the  immigrants  through 
an  oral  examination  as  to  age,  occupation,  desti- 
nation, ability  to  earn  a  livelihood,  etc.  For  a 
list  of  the  questions,  see  the  Manifest,  in  Appen- 
dix II. 

*  Commonly  known  as  granulated  eyelids. 


THE    INVADING   ARMY         H 

Up  to  the  gallery  there  floats  the  wailing  of 
babies,  the  prattle  of  children,  a  snatch  or  two 
of  an  Armenian  or  Russian  cradle-song,  and  a 
confused  murmur  of  many  dialects  and  tongues. 
The  visitor  gazes  fascinated  at  the  lively  and  en- 
thralling scene  below  him.  In  the  "detention 
pen"  he  sees  an  aged  couple.  The  wife  sits  upon 
a  bench,  her  head  bent  forward  and  the  slow 
tears  dropping  unnoticed  in  her  lap.  The  hus- 
band shifts  aimlessly  from  one  foot  to  the  other, 
staring  blankly  and  constantly  rubbing  his  great, 
scarred,  toil-misshapen  hands.  They  sold  their 
tiny  homestead  back  in  the  quiet  Sicilian  valley 
to  pay  their  passage  to  America,  But  they  are 
too  old  to  be  allowed  to  try  for  a  fresh  foothold 
in  the  New  World,  and  will  be  sent  back  poorer 
than  they  came,  to  face  anew  the  grinding  poverty 
or,  perhaps,  to  become  paupers.  Near  by  sits 
a  smiling  Swedish  woman  surrounded  by  curious- 
looking  parcels  and  a  scrambling  mass  of  tow- 
headed  youngsters.  Her  husband  came  over  two 
years  ago,  acquired  a  farm  in  South  Dakota,  and 
turning  over  a  hundred  acres  of  wheat  last  fall 
has  sent  for  his  family,  in  consequence. 

And  so  the  visitor's  eye  wanders  from  group 
to  group,  as  he  feels  that  here  the  tragedy  and 
comedy  of  life  are  so  clearly  spread  before  him 
that  he  cannot  afford  to  miss  a  single  movement 
of  the  vast  and  variegated  throng. 

His  gaze,  however,  inevitably  returns  to  the 
tireless  line  which  comes  shuffling  up  the  entrance 


12     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

stairway.  It  arouses  his  curiosity.  He  wonders 
when  it  will  stop.  He  begins  to  count  the  march- 
ers, but  his  attention  flags — drawn  away  by  the 
vague  and  chaotic  ideas  which  come  crowding 
into  his  brain — and  he  misses  his  count  by  scores. 
His  guide  tells  him  that  on  May  7,  1905,  twelve 
thousand  persons  passed  up  those  stairs;  that 
during  the  past  year  nearly  a  million  immigrants 
crossed  the  well-worn  threshold.  He  sees  the 
uselessness  of  counting,  and  begins  to  realize  that 
before  him  is  the  main  current  of  that  great 
stream  of  peoples  constantly  moving  westward 
from  the  crowded  and  downtrodden  quarters  of 
the  globe  to  the  freer  lands  and  the  breathing 
spaces  where  life  promises  brighter  possibilities. 
The  stream  is  forced  onward,  for  the  most  part, 
by  the  hope  of  better  things  which  centuries  of 
dreary  poverty,  spiritless  toil,  and  unending  op- 
pression have  failed  to  crush.  It  begins  way 
back  in  the  hamlets  of  Asia,  of  Russia,  of  Hun- 
gary, the  villages  of  Italy,  Poland,  Finland,  from 
the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Mediter- 
ranean to  the  shores  of  the  Baltic.  Urged  along 
in  its  current  are  men  of  many  races  and  nations : 
the  Slav,  the  Kelt,  the  Teuton  march  shoulder  to 
shoulder ;  Bohemians,  Slovaks,  Poles,  Dalmatians, 
Norwegians,  Germans,  Servians,  Greeks,  Bos- 
nians, Italians,  Portuguese,  and  a  score  of  others 
are  herded  together  in  the  steerage  and  rub  elbows 
in  the  great  hall  at  Ellis  Island.  Its  elements  are 
equally  and  as  bewilderingly  diverse  in  other  re- 


THE   INVADING   ARMY         13 

spects,  and  the  great  westward  tide  carries  with 
it  the  good  and  the  bad,  the  old  and  the  young, 
the  strong  and  the  weak,  the  prosperous  and  the 
needy.  A  sneak-thief  from  the  gutters  of  Naples 
jogs  beside  a  simple-hearted  Lithuanian  peasant, 
and  behind  a  whining  Armenian  beggar  walks 
a  thrifty  Scotch  engineer. 

When  our  visitor  at  last  boards  the  ferry  which 
will  carry  him  back  to  New  York,  he  still  sees  in 
imagination  that  swarming  immigrant  stream 
which  is  so  potent  for  good  or  ill  to  the  nation 
he  loves.  He  finds  himself  wondering  as  to  the 
future  of  the  throngs  who  daily  pass  through  the 
Gateway  of  the  Republic,  and  wondering  as  to 
the  future  of  the  nation  which  admits  them. 


2.    A  MILLION  A  YEAR 

Radical  changes  in  the  volume  and  character 
of  the  immigrant  stream  have  been  going  on  dur- 
ing the  last  quarter  century.  The  earlier  immi- 
grants came  in  comparatively  small  numbers,  and 
the  bulk  of  them  were  from  northwestern  Europe, 
Up  to  1880  only  one  immigrant  out  of  a  hundred 
came  from  Italy,  Austria-Hungary,  Russia  or 
Poland ;  the  remaining  ninety-nine  came  from 
England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  Germany,  and  the 
Scandinavian  countries.  That  is,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Irish,  they  were  of  the  Teutonic  race, 
and  were  closely  allied  by  blood  and  language, 
religion  and  ideals  to  the  colonists  who  established 


14    THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

our  institutions  and  government.  It  was  com- 
paratively easy  for  them  to  learn  American  ways 
and  become  Americans. 

About  twenty-five  years  ago  the  number  of  im- 
migrants suddenly  rose  to  over  half  a  million. 
The  inpouring  stream  fluctuated  back  and  forth, 
according  to  prosperity  or  panic  here,  and  pres- 
sure of  poverty  or  persecution  abroad.  Reference 
to  the  table  in  Appendix  I,  which  gives  the  immi- 
gration for  each  year  since  1820,  will  show  how 
the  fluctuation  continued,  but  with  a  tendency  to- 
ward increase,  until  by  1903  the  number  had  risen 
to  857,046.  In  1905  it  overtopped  the  million 
mark  by  26,499  (i>026,499);  and  in  the  year 
ending  June  30,  1906,  it  reached  the  highest 
recorded  point,  with  a  total  of  1,100,735.  There 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  this  enormous  rate 
will  diminish,  so  long  as  our  prosperity  continues 
to  invite. 

Of  the  1,100,000  in  round  numbers,  935,000 
entered  through  the  port  of  New  York.  Of  this 
total,  609,714  were  males;  106,990  were  under 
fourteen  years  of  age;  38,296  were  over  forty- 
five;  leaving  the  great  majority  in  the  working 
age.  The  leading  races  were  thus  represented : 
Italians,  221,696;  Russian  Jews,  125,000;  Mag- 
yars, 42,000;  the  various  Slav  peoples  nearly 
259,000;  Germans,  71,916,  Ellis  Island  received 
99,075  more  immigrants  than  in  1905,  and  the 
proportions  as  to  races  were  not  greatly  changed. 
Those  who  are  interested  in  statistics  will  find 


THE    INVADING   ARMY         15 

in  Appendix  I  a  table  showing  the  immigration 
of  1905  in  detail.  The  point  of  especial  interest 
to  us  here  is  that  of  numbers. 

Eleven  hundred  thousand  immigrants  in  1906; 
a  million  in  1905  ;  almost  a  million  in  1903.  More 
than  five  millions  since  1900.  That  is  something 
to  make  an  American  pause  and  ponder,  if  he  have 
the  welfare  of  his  country  at  heart.  What  does 
it  mean?  If  you  would  make  the  total  a  living 
reality,  localize  it.  How  many  people  are  there 
in  your  city,  town,  or  village?  Divide  that  into 
a  million,  and  see  how  many  times  over  you  could 
repopulate  your  place  of  residence  with  the  immi- 
grant host  of  1906  or  1905.  How  many  towns  of 
Italians  and  Russian  Jews  and  Slavs  and  Germans 
and  Scandinavians  would  you  have?  Take  the 
illiterates  of  1905  (230,886  of  them),  and  how 
many  times  would  they  settle  your  town  anew? 
The  immigration  of  the  last  year  exceeds  the 
population  of  Connecticut.  Imagine  the  Nutmeg 
State  depopulated  and  then  repopulated  with  the 
new  peoples.  Would  not  that  be  a  field  for  the 
missionaries  ?  Would  we  not,  in  such  a  case,  real- 
ize vividly  what  must  be  done  to  Americanize 
such  a  section?  The  whole  country  would  stand 
aghast  at  the  sight,  if  it  were  possible  to  segre- 
gate in  Connecticut  the  immigration  of  a  single 
year.  But  it  is  somewhere  in  the  country,  and 
just  as  much  in  need  of  Americanization  and 
evangelization  as  though  it  were  grouped  all  to- 
gether.    The  following  table  will  help  us  to  ap- 


16     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

preciate  the  increase  of  immigration  and  its  pres- 
ent extent: 

IMMIGRATION   BY  DECADES   SINCE   182O 

1821  to  1830 143,439  1901  487.918 

1831101840 599,125     1902    648,743 

184110x850 1,713,251      1903     857.046 

185 1  to  i860 2,598,214    1904   812,870 

1861  to  1870 2,314,824    1905   1,026,499 

1871  to  1880 2,812,191     1906   1,106,000 

1881  to  1890 5.246.613    1901  to  1906 4.939,076 

1891  to  1900 3,687,564    1897  to  1906 6,159,494 

Grand  total  since  1820 24.054,297 

Adding  the  250,000  immigrants,  who  are  estimated 
to  have  come  before  1820,  when  the  official 
records  begin,  we  have  a  total  of  24,304,297.  If 
we  go  a  step  further,  and  select  certain  periods, 
we  shall  find  some  very  interesting  results.  For 
example,  here  are  four  periods  with  totals  nearly 
alike : 

IMMIGRATION   FOR  CERTAIN   PERIODS 

1820  to  i860 5.054,023    1881  to  1890 5,246,613 

1861  to  1880 5,126,915    1900  to  1906 5,387,648 

That  is,  the  immigration  of  the  twenty  years, 
1861-1880,  was  about  the  same  as  that  of  the 
forty  years,  1820- 1860.  That  of  the  ten  years, 
1881-1890,  was  larger  than  that  of  the  twenty 
years  preceding:  and  that  of  the  last  seven  years 
exceeds  the  total  for  the  decade  i88i-i89oby  141,- 
035,  and  surpasses  that  of  the  decade  1891-1900 
by  more  than  two  inillions.  This  indicates  the 
vast  increase  that  makes  immigration  a  cause  of 


THE    INVADING    ARMY         H 

solicitude.  Think  of  it !  Since  the  dawn  of  the 
twentieth  century  Europe  has  poured  in  upon 
us  five  and  a  third  millions  (5,387,648)  of  aliens 
— men,  women,  and  children.  The  number  is 
slightly  larger  than  the  entire  population  of 
Canada  (5,371,315).  It  exceeds  that  of  Sweden 
by  100,000,  and  almost  equals  that  of  Norway 
and  Switzerland  combined ;  it  equals  the  popu- 
lation of  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  and  ex- 
ceeds by  a  million  the  population  of  Ireland ; 
while  it  does  not  fall  much  below  that  of 
Scotland.  If  all  the  people  of  the  Nether- 
lands (5,347,182)  came  over  to  this  country  in  a 
body,  they  would  fall  below  the  total  immigra- 
tion since  1900.  Coming  home  to  our  own  con- 
tinents, our  immigration  equalled  the  combined 
population  of  Argentina  and  Paraguay,  or  that  of 
Chili  and  Venezuela.  In  our  own  country,  it 
equalled  the  population  of  Illinois,  far  exceeded 
that  of  Ohio,  would  repeople  Massachusetts  and 
Michigan,  and  if  the  census  of  1900  served  as 
standard,  would  equal  the  total  population  of  the 
fifteen  States  of  Arizona,  Colorado,  Delaware, 
Idaho,  Maine,  Montana,  Nevada,  New  Hamp- 
shire, North  and  South  Dakota,  Rhode  Island, 
Oregon,  Washington,  Wyoming,  and  Oklahoma. 
All  this  with  the  immigration  of  the  past  seven 
years  only.  Well  may  we  speak  of  the  incom- 
ing millions,  and  wonder  what  we  are  to  do  with 
them  or  they  with  us. 

A  feature  of  the  new  immigration  that  espe- 


18     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

cially  concerns  us  is  the  proportion  of  women 
and  children,  and  the  kind  of  family  life  that 
is  being  imported.  The  family  is  the  source  of 
our  national  strength  and  soundness,  and  has  been 
a  matter  of  just  pride  with  us.  The  American 
husband  and  father  is  known  everywhere  for  the 
reverence  in  which  he  holds  womanhood,  and 
for  his  devotion  to  the  family.  The  American 
woman  holds  a  unique  place,  as  compared  with 
her  European  sister,  in  the  home  life  and  manage- 
ment. Anything  that  tends  to  the  deterioration 
of  the  American  home  life  is  fraught  with  evil. 
We  are  interested  to  know,  therefore,  what  the 
family  ideals  and  habits  of  the  newcomers  are. 
One  thing  that  arrests  attention  at  once,  in  the 
immigration  tables,  is  the  large  proportion  of 
males  among  the  immigrants.  Taking  the  statis- 
tics of  1905,  for  example,  we  find  that  of  the  total 
1,026,499  aliens  admitted,  724,914  were  males, 
and  301,585  females  ;  while  there  were  in  the  total 
number  114,668  children  under  fourteen  years 
of  age.  This  makes  the  total  of  women  and 
children,  therefore,  416,253,  or  considerably  more 
than  one-third  of  the  million.  The  large  propor- 
tion of  men  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  with 
most  of  the  races  from  southeastern  Europe  it  is 
the  custom  for  the  men  to  come  first  alone,  the 
common  idea  being  to  save  a  few  hundred  dol- 
lars and  return  home  again.  The  outcome  is  that 
many  do  go  back,  but  only  to  emigrate  again, 
and  this  time  with  the  idea  of  staying  in  America. 


THE   INVADING   ARMY         19 

Then  the  wife  and  children  are  brought  along, 
or  sent  for  later,  and  the  home  is  estabUshed 
here.  In  the  case  of  single  men,  in  numerous  in- 
stances the  money  will  be  sent  from  this  country 
to  pay  the  passage  hither  of  the  young  woman 
across  the  seas,  who  will  respond  to  the  sum- 
mons and  come  to  be  married  here.  The  follow- 
ing table  shows  the  sex  proportions  of  the  leading 
peoples : 

Children 
Race  or  people  Male        Female      under  14 

Bohemian  and  Moravian. .  6,662  S.095  2,620 

Bulgarian  and  Servian...  5.562  261  97 

Croatian  and  Slovenian...  30,253  4,851  1,383 

Finnish    ii,907  S.ios  1,483 

Dalmatian.    Bosnian 2,489  150  62 

Dutch  and  Flemish 5.693  2,805  1.699 

Greek  11,386  5S8  446 

Hebrew   82,076  47,834  28,553 

Italian    186,702  39,618  20,484 

Lithuanian    13,842  4,762  1.474 

Magyar    34,232  11,788  3,864 

Polish   72.452  29,985  9,867 

Roumanian  7,244  574  I53 

Russian    22,700  1,046  591 

Ruthenian    10,820  3,653  661 

Slovak 38,038  14.330  4,582 

Irish   24,640  29,626  2,580 

English    31,965  18,900  6,956 

Scandinavian   37,202  25,082  6,597 

These  figures  tell  their  story.  The  Bohemians 
and  Moravians  come  in  families  to  a  large  extent. 
There  are  five  Italian  men  to  every  Italian 
woman.  Of  the  Slavs  from  the  Balkan  States 
96  out  of  100  are  males.  The  Poles  and  Magyars 
bring  a  goodly  proportion  of  women  and  children. 
The  Jews  have  the  largest  proportion  of  women 


20     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

and  children  among  the  peoples  of  southeastern 
Europe.  The  Irish  women  outnumber  the  men; 
but  this  indicates  the  domestic  service  of  the  im- 
migrants rather  than  family  life,  as  the  number 
of  children  is  relatively  small.  The  English  and 
Scandinavians  show  how  large  a  proportion  of 
families  come  together.  As  to  the  type  of  home 
life  which  the  Slavs  and  Italians  bring  with  them, 
that  will  be  treated  in  a  later  chapter. 

If  the  new  immigration  showed  merely  a 
growth  in  numbers,  the  problem  of  absorbing  and 
assimilating  the  newcomers  would  be  a  compara- 
tively simple  one.  But  the  inflow  of  to-day  is  no 
longer  predominantly  Teutonic.  The  proportion  of 
English,  Scandinavians,  and  Germans  has  been 
constantly  growing  less.  Instead,  we  are  now 
receiving  vast  numbers  of  Poles,  Italians,  Hun- 
garians, Russians,  and  allied  peoples.  Up  to 
1902  one-quarter  of  the  total  number  of  immi- 
grants came  from  Germany;  in  1903,  less  than 
one-twentieth  were  Germans.  Formerly  Eng- 
land sent  us  13.4  per  cent,  of  our  immigrants; 
to-day  she  sends  us  only  about  3  per  cent.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  1903  fully  half  of  the  immi- 
grants were  from  Italy  and  Austria-Hungary ;  in 
1904  slightly  over  a  third  were  Slavs;  in  1905 
there  were  220,000  Italians  and  230,000  Slavs  out 
of  the  million  newcomers. 

These  peoples  whom  we  are  now  so  largely 
drawing  constitute  a  real  invading  army.  They 
bring  with  them  standards  and  ideals  which  are 


THE    INVADING   ARMY         21 

vastly  different  from  our  own.  Their  habits, 
customs,  institutions,  ways  of  living,  are  alto- 
gether un-American.  It  is  interesting  to  try  to 
imagine  what  kind  of  a  place  the  United  States 
would  now  be  if  the  Poles  had  founded  Boston,  if 
the  Italians  had  settled  Virginia,  if  the  Slovaks 
had  colonized  New  York,  the  Lithuanians  estab- 
lished Philadelphia,  and  the  Jews  been  pioneers 
in  the  Great  West.  Such  flights  of  fancy  may 
help  us  to  imagine  what  the  United  States  is 
liable  to  become  if  the  present  order  of  affairs 
continues. 

3.    WHY  THEY  COME 

After  watching  a  newly  arrived  shipload  of 
immigrants,  weary  and  bedraggled  from  the  hard- 
ships of  a  voyage  in  the  crowded  steerage,  or 
after  walking  through  the  teeming  streets  of  New 
York's  foreign  colonies  where  thousands  of  men, 
women,  and  children  are  herded  in  loathsome 
poverty,  one  of  the  first  questions  to  arise  is, 
"Why  do  these  people  come  ?" 

It  is  not  possible  to  give  all  the  reasons,  for, 
of  course,  they  vary  with  individual  men  and 
women.  But  we  can  suggest  broadly  the  chief 
reasons  which  bring  to  our  gates  every  year  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  aliens  clamoring  for  ad- 
mission. It  will  give  us  a  clearer  idea  of  the  sub- 
ject if  we  divide  the  immigrants  into  two  distinct 
classes :  first,  the  natural  class,  made  up  of  those 
who  come  on  their  own  initiative  and  at  their  own 


22     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

expense;  and  second,  the  artificial  class,  who  are 
induced  to  come  by  steamship  agents,  employers 
of  labor,  and  officials  of  foreign  countries. 

In  the  first  class  are  to  be  found  those  who 
desire  to  escape  from  political  oppression  and 
intolerable  social  conditions.  Their  motives  are 
much  the  same,  in  part,  as  those  which  prompted 
our  Huguenot  and  Puritan  ancestors  to  seek  these 
new  shores.  Something  of  the  genuineness  and 
strength  of  these  motives  to-day  may  be  gathered 
from  the  following  account  given  by  a  Lithuanian 
now  at  work  in  the  Chicago  stock-yards  :* 

"I  can  never  forget  that  evening  four  years 
ago.  It  was  a  cold  December.  We  were  in  a 
big  room  in  our  log  house  in  Lithuania.  My  good, 
kind,  thin  old  mother  sat  near  the  wide  fireplace, 
working  her  brown  spinning  wheel,  with  which 
she  made  cloth  for  our  shirts  and  coats  and  pants. 
I  leaned  my  head  on  her  dress  and  kept  yawning 
and  thinking  about  my  big  goose-feather  bed.  My 
father  sat  and  smoked  his  pipe  across  the  fire- 
place. Between  was  a  kerosene  lamp  on  a  table, 
and  under  it  sat  the  ugly  shoemaker  on  a  stool 
finishing  a  big  yellow  boot. 

"At  last  the  boot  was  finished.  My  father 
stopped  smoking  and  looked  at  it.  'That's  a  good 
boot,'  said  my  father.  The  shoemaker  grunted. 
'That's  a  poor  boot,'  he  replied,  'a  rough  boot  like 
all  your  boots,  and  so  when  you  grow  old  you  are 
lame.    You  have  only  poor  things,  for  rich  Rus- 

*  UndistingiHshed  Americans,  p.  9. 


THE    INVADING   ARMY         23 

sians  get  your  good  things,  and  yet  you  will  not 
kick  up  against  them.     Bah !' 

"  'What  good  will  such  talk  do  me  ?'  said  my 
father. 

"  'You !'  cried  the  shoemaker.  'It's  not  you  at 
all.  It's  the  boy — that  boy  there !'  and  he  pointed 
at  me.     'That  boy  must  go  to  America!' 

"Now  I  quickly  stopped  yawning  and  I  looked 
at  him  all  the  time  after  this.  My  mother  looked 
frightened  and  she  put  her  hand  on  my  head. 
'No,  no ;  he  is  only  a  boy,'  she  said.  'Bah  !'  cried 
the  shoemaker.  'He  is  eighteen  and  a  man.  You 
know  where  he  must  go  in  three  years  more.' 
We  all  knew  he  meant  my  five  years  in  the  army. 
'Where  is  your  oldest  son?  Dead.  Oh,  I  know 
the  Russians — ^the  man-wolves !  I  served  my 
term,  I  know  how  it  is.  Your  son  served  in  Tur- 
key in  the  mountains.  Why  not  here?  Because 
they  want  foreign  soldiers  here  to  beat  us.  They 
let  him  soak  in  rain ;  standing  guard  all  night  in 
the  snow  and  ice  he  froze ;  the  food  was  God's 
food,  the  vodka  was  cheap  and  rotten !  Then  he 
died.  The  wolves — the  man-wolves !  Look  at 
this  book.'  He  jerked  a  Roman  Catholic  prayer 
book  from  his  bag  on  the  floor.  'Where  would 
I  go  if  they  found  this  on  me?  Where  is  Wil- 
helm  Birbell?' 

"We  all  knew.  Birbell  was  a  rich  farmer  who 
smuggled  in  prayer  books  from  Germany  so  that 
we  could  all  pray  as  we  liked,  instead  of  the  Rus- 
sian Church  way.     He  was  caught  one  night  and 


24     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

they  kept  him  two  years  in  the  St.  Petersburg 
jail,  in  a  cell  so  narrow  and  short  that  he  could 
not  stretch  his  legs,  for  they  were  very  long. 
This  made  him  lame  for  life. 

"  'And  what  is  this  ?'  he  cried  and  pulled  out  an 
old  American  newspaper,  printed  in  the  Lithu- 
anian language,  and  I  remember  he  tore  it  he  was 
so  angry.  'The  world's  good  news  is  all  kept 
away.  We  can  read  only  what  the  Russian  offi- 
cials print  in  their  papers.  Read  ?  No,  you  can't 
read  or  write  your  own  language,  because  there 
is  no  Lithuanian  school — only  the  Russian  school 
— you  can  only  read  and  write  Russian.  Can 
you  ?  No,  you  can  c !  Because  even  those  Rus- 
sian schools  make  you  pay  to  learn,  and  you  have 
no  money  to  pay.  Will  you  never  be  ashamed — 
all  you?' 

"Now  I  looked  at  my  mother  and  her  face 
looked  frightened,  but  the  shoemaker  cried  still 
louder.  'Why  can't  you  have  your  own  Lithu- 
anian school  ?  Because  you  are  like  dogs — you 
have  nothing  to  say — you  have  no  town  meetings 
or  province  meetings,  no  elections.  And  why 
can't  you  even  pay  to  go  to  the  Russian  school? 
Because  they  get  all  your  money.  And  so  your 
boy  must  never  read  or  write,  or  think  like  a  man 
should  think.' 

"He  kept  looking  at  me,  but  he  opened  the 
newspaper  and  held  it  up.  'Some  day,'  he  said, 
'I  will  be  caught  and  sent  to  jail,  but  I  don't 
care.     I  got  this  from  my  son  in  Chicago,  who 


THE    INVADING   ARMY         25 

reads  all  he  can  find,  at  night.  My  son  got  it  in 
the  night  school  and  he  put  it  in  Lithuanian  for 
me  to  see.'  Then  he  bent  over  the  paper  a  long 
time  and  his  lips  moved.  At  last  he  looked  into 
the  fire,  and  then  his  voice  was  shaking  and  very 
low : 

"  'We  know  that  these  are  true  things — that 
all  men  are  born  free  and  equal — ^that  God  gives 
them  rights  which  no  man  can  take  away — that 
among  these  rights  are  life,  liberty,  and  the 
getting  of  happiness.' 

"He  stopped,  I  remember,  and  looked  at  me, 
and  I  was  not  breathing." 

As  a  result  of  this  talk  the  boy  came  to 
America,  not  long  afterward,  when  it  was  time 
for  his  military  service  to  begin.  His  mother 
would  rather  have  him  in  America  than  in  the 
army. 

In  the  first  class,  also,  are  to  be  found  the 
large  numbers  of  immigrants  who  come  to  better 
their  financial  condition.  Commissioner  Watch- 
orn's  statement  that  "American  wages  are  the 
honey-pot  that  brings  the  alien  flies"  is  unques- 
tionably true  in  a  majority  of  cases.  America 
is  known  throughout  Europe  as  the  land  of  prom- 
ise where  work  is  plentiful  and  wages  are  almost 
unbelievably  high.  Aliens  who  return  home  to 
stay  or  visit  spread  the  news  of  boundless  pros- 
perity. A  Swede  who  is  relating  the  story  of  how 
he  happened  to  come  to  America  says :  "A  man 
who  had  been  living  in  America  once  came  to 


26     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

visit  the  little  village  that  was  near  our  cottage. 
He  wore  gold  rings  set  with  jewels  and  had  a 
fine  watch.  He  said  that  food  was  cheap  in 
America  and  that  a  man  could  earn  nearly  ten 
times  as  much  there  as  in  Sweden.  There  seemed 
to  be  no  end  to  his  money."  Such  news  travels 
quickly  from  town  to  town  and  fills  the  pinched 
countryfolk  with  longings  for  such  blissful  pros- 
perity. Profits  which  in  America  seem  modest 
loom  very  big  when  translated  into  Swedish, 
Austrian,  or  Italian  money.  The  relative  cost 
of  living  does  not  often  enter  into  considera- 
tion. 

Lack  of  industries,  burdensome  taxes,  poor 
soil,  and  overcrowding  are  among  the  chief  fac- 
tors which  send  European  peasants  on  their  rough 
journey  over  seas.  In  1901,  for  example,  the 
population  of  Italy  was  294  to  the  square  mile. 
Throughout  the  larger  part  of  the  kingdom 
there  has  been  but  little  development  of  indus- 
tries to  keep  pace  with  the  growth  of  population. 
Farming  is  still  the  leading  occupation  and  is  car- 
ried on,  for  the  most  part,  in  very  primitive  ways 
and  on  a  very  small  scale.  The  Italian  uses  the 
spade  where  an  American  would  use  the  plow. 
Taxes  are  heavy  and  bear  hardest  on  the  peasant 
farmers  who  can  least  support  the  burden.  "The 
landlord's  saddle  horse  is  exempt,  while  a  tax  is 
assessed  on  the  peasant's  donkey."  The  govern- 
ment has  a  monopoly  of  the  salt  and  various 
other  trades,  and  armed  guards  have  been  known 


THE    INVADING   ARMY         27 

to  patrol  the  coast  to  prevent  the  peasants  from 
stealing  a  few  buckets  of  seawater  to  obtain  the 
salt.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  under  such  conditions 
mothers,  wives,  and  sweethearts  bid  their  loved 
ones  godspeed  for  America? 

In  the  second,  or  artificial  class,  are  to  be  found 
numerous  immigrants  who  have  been  induced  or 
browbeaten  by  steamship  agents  into  making  the 
journey  to  America.  Competition  between  the 
great  steamship  lines  is  very  keen,  and  for  a  long 
time  the  different  companies  have  been  raking 
Europe  with  a  fine-toothed  comb  in  quest  of 
steerage  passengers.  They  have  agents  in  every 
community.  Many  of  these  agents  employ  sub- 
agents,  or  "runners,"  to  drum  up  trade.  Their 
one  object  is  to  secure  the  commission  for  sell- 
ing a  passage  to  America  and  they  are  apt  to  be 
unscrupulous  in  their  methods.  To  the  ignorant 
peasant  they  tell  Arabian  Nights'  tales  of  our 
prosperity  and  lead  him  to  believe  that  he  has 
only  to  cross  the  ocean  to  become  a  wealthy  man. 
Immigrants  thus  deluded  have  been  known  to 
throw  their  cooking  utensils  overboard  on  reach- 
ing an  American  harbor,  thinking  that  they  could 
pick  up  new  ones  when  they  got  ashore.  The 
following  is  a  typical  example  of  the  results  of 
this  kind  of  enterprise  :  * 

"A  family,  consisting  of  husband,  wife,  and  five 
children,  had  been  located  in  Hungary,  the  hus- 
band being  engaged  as  a  barber  and  the  wife  as 

*  Immigration  Report  for  1905,  p.  41. 


28     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

a  hairdresser.  They  were  in  much  better  cir- 
cumstances than  the  average  Hungarian  peasant, 
and  were  both  prosperous  and  happy.  A  repre- 
sentative of  one  of  the  steamship  companies  called 
upon  the  father,  and  represented  to  him  that  while 
he  was  doing  nicely  in  his  present  situation  he 
could  do  twice  as  well  in  America.  Believing 
this  story,  he  left  his  wife  and  children  and  came 
to  Baltimore.  Finding  that  the  wages  paid  to 
barbers  in  Baltimore  were  scarcely  adequate  to 
his  own  support,  he  came  to  Washington  and 
secured  a  position  at  $io  a  week. 

"The  wife,  thinking  that  her  husband  was  real- 
izing the  expectations  createdin  their  minds  by  the 
steamship  agent,  disposed  of  their  business  and 
household  effects  and  came  to  Baltimore  without 
having  notified  her  husband,  evidently  thinking  it 
would  be  a  pleasant  surprise  to  him.  She  im- 
mediately realized  the  serious  error  into  which  she 
had  fallen  and  became  almost  crazed  through  dis- 
tress and  homesickness,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
lady  who  narrated  the  story,  it  will  be  only  a  short 
time  before  she  will  be  confined  in  some  institu- 
tion for  the  insane.  Thus,  a  happy  and  pros- 
perous family  of  Europe  have  been  thrown  into 
physical  and  mental  distress  and  induced  to  sacri- 
fice their  business  and  household  effects  because 
of  the  desire  of  a  steamship  agent  to  increase  his 
business  by  selling  the  several  passages  involved 
in  moving  the  family  to  America."  It  was 
through  the  efforts  of  Christian  women  of  Wash- 


THE    INVADING   ARMY         29 

ington  that  money  was  raised  to  send  the  family 
back  to  Hungary. 

Most  of  the  immigrants  from  eastern  Europe 
come  through  Germany.  Along  the  Russian  and 
Austrian  frontiers  the  Germans  have  established 
"control  stations"  where  immigrants  are  gathered 
together,  for  the  Germans  do  not  propose  to  keep 
them,  or  suffer  by  them.  The  usual  method  is 
to  arrest  all  third  and  fourth  class  passengers 
who  appear  to  be  foreigners  and  bring  them  to  the 
steamship  agents  at  the  "control  stations."  Here 
the  immigrant  too  often  finds  himself  in  a  hope- 
less struggle  with  the  combined  forces  of  agent 
and  special  police  officer.  The  sorry  plight  of  the 
immigrant  is  well  illustrated  in  the  following 
words  of  Inspector  Fishberg,  who  made  a  thor- 
ough study  of  emigrant  conditions :  * 

"They  (the  steamship  agents)  look  upon  every 
eastern  European  emigrant  as  one  who  must  go  to 
the  United  States  whether  he  desires  to  or  not. 
Many  of  the  emigrants  arriving  in  Germany  who 
are  brought  by  the  police  to  the  'control  sta- 
tions,' on  being  asked  where  they  are  bound  for, 
say  England.  The  agent  sees  very  little  com- 
mission in  the  sale  of  the  ticket  for  London,  and 
besides  this  suspects  that  the  emigrant  intends 
upon  his  arrival  in  England  to  embark  on  a  ves- 
sel owned  by  one  of  the  English  or  American 
companies.  The  emigrant  passing  through  Ger- 
many is  considered  the  legitimate  prey  of  the 

*  Immigration  Report  for  1905,  p.  53. 


30     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

German  steamship  companies  and  their  agents. 
Conversations  such  as  the  following  have  often 
been  overheard  in  'control  stations' : 

"Agent:  'Where  are  you  bound  for?'  Emi- 
grant :  'To  America.'  Agent :  'How  much  money 
have  you  ?'  Emigrant :  'How  is  that  your  busi- 
ness?' Gendarme :  'Don't  talk  back ;  show  all  the 
money  you  have.  If  you  don't  I  will  at  once 
take  you  back  to  Russia  and  hand  you  over  to 
the  authorities.' 

"Some  on  being  asked  where  they  are  bound 
for  state :  'To  England ;'  'To  Belgium ;'  'To 
France.'  The  agent  will  never  believe  it.  He 
looks  at  every  one  as  an  'American'  (the  techni- 
cal term  applied  to  emigrants  bound  for  the 
United  States),  and  at  once  tells  him :  'You  are  a 
liar,'  insisting  that  his  victim  is  bound  for  an 
American  port  and  should  buy  a  steamship  ticket 
at  once. 

"I  have  personally  witnessed  at  Thorn  the  case 
of  a  man,  his  wife,  and  four  grown-up  children 
who  stated  to  the  agent,  Mr.  Caro,  that  they  had 
sold  everything  in  their  native  home  in  Warsaw 
and  got  together  sufficient  money  to  go  to  Eng- 
land. But  Caro  insisted  that  they  ought  to  go  to 
America  and  refused  to  sell  tickets  to  England. 
The  gendarme  sided  with  the  agent.  'Either  go 
to  New  York  or  return  to  Poland,'  was  the  ver- 
dict. The  poor  man  at  last  decided  to  send  his 
wife  and  two  daughters  back  to  Poland  and  he 
and  his  two  sons  bought  tickets  for  New  York. 


THE    INVADING   ARMY         31 

This  is  no  isolated  case.  Many  who  honestly 
want  to  settle  in  England  thus  find  themselves 
travelling  to  the  United  States.  No  amount  of 
pleading  is  of  avail.  He  is  not  sold  a  ticket 
to  England,  France,  or  any  other  country. 
'America  or  home'  is  the  verdict  of  the  steamship 
company's  agent,  and  the  gendarme  concurs." 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing  are  the  criminals 
and  paupers  who  are  aided  and  encouraged  to 
come  to  America.  At  one  time  we  were  made  a 
veritable  dumping-ground,  especially  by  the  Eng- 
lish. But,  thanks  to  repeated  protests  on  the 
part  of  the  government  and  the  passage  of  strict 
laws,  this  state  of  affairs  has  been  remedied  to  a 
large  extent.  There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that 
criminals  and  ne'er-do-wells  in  many  cases  still 
find  the  path  to  America  a  comparatively  easy 
one  to  follow. 

The  third  and  largest  division  of  the  artificial 
class  is  made  up  of  laborers  who  are  "imported" 
in  defiance  of  the  Contract  Labor  Law.  Said 
Mr.  Jacob  Riis  a  short  while  ago:  "Scarce  a 
Greek  comes  here,  man  or  boy,  who  is  not  under 
contract.  A  hundred  dollars  a  year  is  the  price, 
so  it  is  said  by  those  who  know,  though  the 
padrone's  cunning  has  put  the  legal  proof  be- 
yond their  reach.  And  the  Armenian  and  Syrian 
hucksters  are  'worked'  by  some  peddling  trust 
that  traffics  in  human  labor  as  do  other  mer- 
chants in  foodstuffs  and  coal  and  oil."  This  de- 
fiance of  the  law  is  the  result,  in  great  degree,  of 


32     THE   INCOMING   MILLIONS 

the  demand  for  cheap  labor  on  the  part  of  con- 
tractors, railroad  and  mining  companies,  and 
other  large  employers  of  unskilled  labor.  Th^ 
evasion  of  the  law  and  the  workings  of  the  pa^ 
drone  system  will  be  described  later,  and  illus 
trations  are  given  in  Appendix  I. 


II 

LETTING  IN  AND  SHUTTING  OUT 

I.    OPENING  THE  GATES 

A  GRAPHIC  description  of  entering  Amer- 
ica as  an  immigrant  is  given  by  a  writer* 
who  had  the  great  advantage  of  being  not 
a  mere  observer,  but  a  part  of  what  he  describes. 
Disguised  as  an  ItaHan  peasant  he  made  the  voy- 
age in  the  steerage  in  order  to  know  conditions 
at  first  hand  and  be  able  to  speak  with  authority. 
Accompanied  by  his  brave  wife,  he  first  studied 
the  Itahans  in  their  own  home  environment,  and 
then  became  leader  of  a  party  of  them  bound  for 
America.  His  story  is  freely  adapted  and  used 
here,  including  his  revelation  of  the  unnecessary 
roughness  of  the  steamship  employes,  from  which 
the  immigrants  suffered  all  the  way  over.  He 
was  on  one  of  the  largest  and  best  steamships  of 
a  German  line,  so  that  he  fared  better  than  thou- 
sands of  others.  After  a  trying  ten  days  at  sea, 
his  narrative  begins  at  Sandy  Hook : 

MR.  Brandenburg's  description 
When  the  quarantine  inspection  was  finished, 
the  great  steamer  got  under  way  once  more,  and 

*  Broughton  Brandenburg,  Imported  Americans,  chap, 
xvii. 

33 


34     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

in  the  glorious  sunlight  of  mid-forenoon  we 
steamed  up  between  South  Brooklyn  and  Staten 
Island,  with  the  shipping,  the  houses,  and  the 
general  contour  of  the  harbor  very  plainly  to  be 
seen.  On  every  hand  were  exclamations  among 
the  immigrants  over  the  oddity  of  wooden-built 
houses,  over  the  beauty  of  the  Staten  Island  shore 
places :  and  when  the  gigantic  sky-scrapers  of 
lower  Manhattan  came  into  view,  a  strange,  ser- 
rated line  against  the  sky,  the  people  who  had 
been  to  America  before  cried  out  in  joyful  tones 
and  pointed.  Then  there  was  a  rush  to  see  the 
Statue  of  Liberty,  and  when  all  had  seen  it  they 
stood  with  their  eyes  fixed  for  some  minutes  on 
the  great  beacon  whose  significance  is  so  much  to 
them,  standing  within  the  portals  of  the  New 
World,  and  proclaiming  the  liberty,  justice,  and 
equality  they  had  never  known,  proclaiming  a  life 
in  which  they  have  an  opportunity  such  as  could 
never  come  to  them  elsewhere. 

In  a  short  space  of  time  we  had  steamed  up  the 
harbor,  up  North  River,  and  were  being  warped 
into  the  piers  in  Hoboken.  What  seemed  to  the 
eager  immigrants  an  unreasonably  long  time  of 
waiting  passed  while  the  customs  officers  were 
looking  after  the  first-class  passengers.  When 
the  way  was  clear,  word  was  passed  forward  to 
get  the  immigrants  ready  to  debark.  First,  how- 
ever. Boarding  Inspector  Vance  held  a  little  tri- 
bunal at  the  rail  forward  on  the  hurricane  deck, 
at  which  all  persons  who  had  citizens'  papers 


LETTING  IN— SHUTTING  OUT  35 

were  to  present  them.  I  watched  him  carefully 
as  he  proceeded  with  his  task  of  picking  out 
genuine  citizens  from  the  other  sort  and  allowing 
them  to  leave  the  ship  at  the  docks.  Here  again 
I  could  not  help  seeing  that  deceit,  evasion,  and 
trickery  were  possible,  inasmuch  as  the  inspector 
can  only  take  the  papers  on  the  face  of  them,  to- 
gether with  the  immigrant's  own  statement :  and 
if  the  gangs  who  smuggle  aliens  in  on  borrowed, 
transferred,  or  forged  citizens'  papers  have  been 
careful  enough  in  preparing  their  pupils,  there  is 
no  way  of  apprehending  the  fraud  at  the  port  of 
arrival;  but  there  would  be  no  chance  for  any 
such  practices  if  the  examinations  were  made  in 
the  community  of  the  immigrant's  residence. 

At  last  we  were  summoned  to  pass  aft  and 
ashore.  One  torrent  of  humanity  poured  up 
each  companion-way  to  the  hurricane  deck  and 
aft,  while  a  third  stream  went  through  the  main 
deck  alley-way,  all  lugging  the  preposterous 
bundles.  The  children,  being  by  this  time  very 
hungry,  began  to  yell  with  vigor.  A  frenzy 
seemed  to  possess  some  of  the  people  as  the 
groups  became  separated.  For  a  time  the  hulla- 
baloo was  frightful.  The  steerage  stewards  kept 
up  their  brutality  to  the  last.  One  woman  was 
trying  to  get  up  the  companion-way  with  a  child 
in  one  arm,  her  deck  chair  brought  from  home 
hung  on  the  other,  which  also  supported  a  large 
bundle.  She  blocked  the  passage  for  a  moment. 
One  of  the  stewards  stationed  by  it  reached  up. 


36     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

dragged  her  down,  tore  the  chair  off  her  arm, 
splitting  her  sleeve  as  he  did  so  and  scraping  the 
skin  off  her  wrist,  and  in  his  rage  he  broke  the 
chair  into  a  dozen  pieces.  The  woman  passed  on 
sobbing,  but  cowed  and  without  a  threat. 

As  we  passed  down  the  gangway  an  official 
stood  there  with  a  mechanical  checker  numbering 
the  passengers,  and  uniformed  dock  watchmen 
directed  the  human  flood  pouring  off  the  ship 
where  to  set  down  the  baggage  to  await  customs 
inspection.  While  the  dock  employes'  plan  of 
keeping  the  immigrants  in  line  in  order  to  facil- 
itate the  inspection  of  baggage  was  good  and 
proper,  the  brutal  method  in  which  they  enforced 
it  was  nothing  short  of  reprehensible.  The 
natural  family  and  neighborhood  groups  were 
separated,  and  a  part  of  the  baggage  was  dumped 
in  one  place  and  a  part  in  another.  It  was  natu- 
ral for  the  parties  to  begin  to  hunt  for  each  other. 
Women  ran  about,  seeking  their  children.  The 
dock  men  exhorted  the  people,  in  German,  to  stay 
where  they  were,  and  when  the  eager  Italians  did 
not  understand,  pushed  them  about,  belabored 
them  with  sticks,  or  thrust  them  back  forcibly 
into  place. 

In  the  work  of  hustling  the  immigrants  aboard 
the  barges  the  men  displayed  great  unnecessary 
roughness,  sometimes  shoving  them  violently, 
prodding  them  with  sticks,  etc.  As  one  young 
Apulian  paused  an  instant  to  look  around  for  his 
father,  a  violent  kick  and  oaths  from  a  dock  man 


LETTING  IN— SHUTTING  OUT  37 

taught  him  haste.  The  waits  were  long,  the  im- 
migrants hungry,  having  had  no  food  since  early 
breakfast :  children  cried,  the  musically  inclined 
sang  or  played,  and  the  long  hours  wore  away  in 
waiting — for  Ellis  Island  was  having  a  big  10,000 
day. 

All  the  races  of  Europe  seemed  to  be  repre- 
sented in  the  crowds  on  the  ferryboat  as  it  passed 
close  to  us  when  bound  back  to  the  Battery.  At 
last  the  doors  of  the  barge  were  opened.  The 
weary  hundreds,  shouldering  their  baggage  once 
again,  poured  out  of  the  barge  on  to  the  wharf. 
Knowing  the  way,  I  led  those  of  our  group 
straight  to  the  covered  approach  to  the  grand 
entrance  to  the  building,  and  the  strange  assem- 
blage of  Old  World  humanity  streamed  along  be- 
hind us.  Half-way  up  the  stairs  an  interpreter 
stood,  telling  the  immigrants  to  get  their  health 
tickets  ready.  The  majority  of  the  people,  hav- 
ing their  hands  full  of  bags,  boxes,  bundles,  and 
children,  carried  their  tickets  in  their  teeth,  and 
just  at  the  head  of  the  stairs  stood  a  young  doctor 
in  the  Marine  Hospital  Service  uniform,  who 
took  them,  looked  at  them,  and  stamped  them 
with  the  Ellis  Island  stamp.  Considering  the 
frauds  in  connection  with  these  tickets  at  Naples, 
the  thoroughness  used  with  them  now  was  indeed 
futile. 

Passing  straight  east  from  the  head  of  the 
stairs,  we  turned  into  the  south  half  of  the  great 
registry  floor,  which  is  divided,  like  the  human 


38     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

body,  into  two  great  parts  nearly  alike,  so  that 
one  ship's  load  can  be  handled  on  one  side  and 
another  ship's  load  on  the  other.  Turning  into  a 
narrow  railed-off  lane,  we  encountered  another 
doctor  in  uniform,  who  lifted  hats  or  pushed 
shawls  back  to  look  for  favus  (contagious  skin 
disease)  heads,  keenly  scrutinized  the  face  and 
body  for  signs  of  disease  or  deformity,  and 
passed  us  on.  An  old  man  who  limped  in  front 
of  me,  he  marked  with  a  bit  of  chalk  on  the  coat 
lapel.  At  the  end  of  the  railed  lane  was  a  third 
uniformed  doctor,  a  towel  hanging  beside  him,  a 
small  instrument  over  which  to  turn  up  eyelids  in 
his  hand,  and  back  of  him  basins  of  disinfectants. 
As  we  approached  he  was  examining  a  Molise 
woman  and  her  two  children.  The  youngest 
screamed  with  fear  when  he  endeavored  to  touch 
her,  but  with  a  pat  on  the  cheek  and  a  kindly 
word  the  child  was  quieted  while  he  examined  its 
eyes,  looking  for  trachoma,  or  purulent  ophthal- 
mia. The  second  child  was  so  obstinate  that  it  took 
some  minutes  to  get  it  examined,  and  then,  hav- 
ing found  suspicious  conditions,  he  marked  the 
woman  with  a  bit  of  chalk,  and  a  uniformed  offi- 
cial led  her  and  the  little  ones  to  the  left  into  the 
rooms  for  special  medical  examination.  The  old 
man  who  limped  went  the  same  way,  as  well  as 
many  others.  Those  who  are  found  to  be  suffer- 
ing from  trachoma  are  frequently  sent  to  the  hos- 
pital on  the  Island  and  held  and  treated  until 
"cured."     The  powers  at  Washington  have  ruled 


LETTING  I N— S  HUTTINGOUT39 

that  immigrants  may  be  thus  held  and  cured,  al- 
though there  are  surgeons  at  Ellis  Island  who  do 
not  believe  in  it,  and  the  best  specialists  in  New 
York  contend  that  months  or  years  are  necessary 
to  eliminate  any  danger  of  contagion,  while  the 
Massachusetts  Eye  and  Ear  Infirmary  experi- 
ments in  Boston  have  convinced  the  doctors  that 
cures  are  the  exception. 

Just  where  we  turned  to  the  right,  a  stern-look- 
ing woman  inspector,  with  the  badge,  stood  look- 
ing at  all  the  women  who  came  up  to  select  any 
whose  moral  character  might  be  questioned,  and 
one  of  her  procedures  was  to  ask  each  party  as  to 
the  various  relationships  of  the  men  and  women 
in  it.  Passing  west,  we  came  to  the  waiting- 
rooms,  in  which  the  groups  entered  on  each  sheet 
of  the  manifest  are  held  until  K  sheet  or  L  sheet, 
whatever  their  letter  may  be,  is  reached.  We 
sank  down  on  the  wooden  benches,  thankful  to 
get  seats  once  more.  Our  eyes  pained  severely 
for  some  minutes  as  a  result  of  the  turning  up  of 
the  lids,  but  the  pain  passed.    .     .     . 

Presently  an  official  came  by  and  hurried  out  U 
group  and  passed  it  up  into  line  along  the  railed 
way  which  led  up  to  the  inspector  who  had  U 
sheet.  Our  papers  were  all  straight,  we  were 
correctly  entered  on  the  manifest,  and  had  abun- 
dant money,  had  been  passed  by  the  doctors,  and 
were  properly  "destined"  to  New  York,  and  so 
were  passed  in  less  than  one  minute.  We  were 
classed  as  "New  York  Outsides"  to  distinguish 


40     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

us  from  the  "New  York  Detained,"  who  await 
the  arrival  of  friends  to  receive  them ;  "Rail- 
roads," who  go  to  the  stations  for  shipment ;  and 
"S.  I.'s,"  by  which  is  meant  the  unfortunates  who 
are  subjected  to  Special  Inquiry  in  the  semi- 
secret  Special  Inquiry  Court. 

A  fellow  passenger  who  came  through  marked 
"Railroad"  was  passed  along  to  get  his  railroad- 
ticket  order  stamped,  his  money  exchanged  at  the 
stand  kept  beside  the  stairs,  and  in  a  minute  more 
he  had  been  moved  on  down  the  stairs  to  the  rail- 
road room.  We  began  to  see  why  the  three  stair- 
ways are  called  "The  Stairs  of  Separation."  To 
their  right  is  the  money  exchange,  to  the  left  are 
the  Special  Inquiry  Room  and  the  telegraph 
offices.  Here  family  parties  with  different  des- 
tinations are  separated,  without  a  minute's  warn- 
ing, and  often  never  to  see  each  other  again.  It 
seems  heartless,  but  it  is  the  only  practical  sys- 
tem, for  if  allowance  was  made  for  good-byes 
the  examination  and  distribution  process  would 
be  blocked  then  and  there  by  a  dreadful  crush. 
The  stairs  to  the  right  lead  to  the  railroad  room, 
where  tickets  are  arranged,  baggage  checked  and 
cleared  from  customs,  and  the  immigrants  loaded 
on  boats  to  be  taken  to  the  various  railroad  sta- 
tions for  shipment  to  various  parts  of  the  country. 
The  central  stairs  lead  to  the  detention  rooms, 
where  immigrants  are  held  pending  the  arrival  of 
friends.  The  left  descent  is  for  those  free  to  go 
out  to  the  ferry. 


LETTING  IN— SHUTTING  OUT  41 

Those  in  the  last  class  are  landed  at  the  Bat- 
tery, and  then  must  shift  for  themselves,  so  far  as 
the  government  is  concerned.  The  protective 
societies,  however,  have  their  agents  at  hand  to 
render  aid,  and  save  the  newcomers  from  being 
victimized  as  they  were  in  former  times.  There 
are  homes  for  girls  and  women  who  come  alone, 
and  employment  bureaus  secure  places  for  many. 
And  in  this  way  it  is  that  the  alien  gains  his 
chance  to  become  American. 

2.     SHUTTING  THE  GATES 

Having  seen  how  the  aliens  get  into  the  United 
States,  let  us  see  how  they  are  kept  out.  A 
knowledge  of  the  laws  which  regulate  immigra- 
tion at  the  present  time  is  very  helpful  when  we 
come  to  form  our  opinions  as  to  whether  further 
restrictive  legislation  is,  or  is  not,  necessary. 
And  this  is  one  point  at  which  woman's  influence 
can  be  used  effectively,  in  the  formation  of  opin- 
ion. 

The  classes  of  aliens  who  are  now  excluded 
from  admission  to  the  United  States  are  as  fol- 
lows:  (i)  Idiots;  (2)  insane  persons,  or  per- 
sons who  have  been  insane  within  five  years  of 
the  time  of  arrival,  or  have  had  two  or  more  at- 
tacks of  insanity  at  any  time  previous;  (3)  epi- 
leptics; (4)  paupers;  (5)  persons  likely  to  be- 
come public  charges;  (6)  professional  beggars; 
(7)  persons  afflicted  with  a  loathsome  or  with  a 
dangerous  contagious  disease;  (8)  persons  who 


42     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

have  been  convicted  of  a  felony  or  other  crime  in- 
volving moral  depravity;  (9)  polygamists ;  (10) 
anarchists,  or  persons  who  believe  in  the  violent 
overthrow  of  government  or  the  assassination  of 
public  officials;  (11)  prostitutes;  (12)  persons 
who  attempt  to  bring  in  prostitutes  or  women  for 
the  purpose  of  prostitution;  (13)  persons  who 
come  under  offers,  solicitations,  promises  or 
agreements  of  employment,  not  including  skilled 
laborers  if  others  of  like  kind  cannot  be  found 
unemployed  in  this  country,  professional  actors, 
artists,  lecturers,  singers,  ministers  of  any  reli- 
gious denomination,  professors  for  colleges  or 
seminaries,  persons  belonging  to  any  recognized 
learned  profession,  and  persons  employed  solely 
as  personal  and  domestic  servants ;  ( 14)  any  per- 
son whose  passage  is  paid  for  by  another  or  who 
is  assisted  by  others  to  come,  unless  it  is  satis- 
factorily shown  that  such  person  does  not  belong 
to  one  of  the  above  excluded  classes. 

The  provision  regarding  those  liable  to  be- 
come public  charges  is  made  very  elastic,  and 
under  it  many  morally  undesirable  immigrants 
are  excluded.  In  order  to  carry  out  these  pro- 
visions of  the  immigration  laws  the  government 
has  established  stations  at  the  seaports  where  im- 
migrants are  likely  to  arrive  and  at  various  con- 
venient points  along  the  Canadian  and  Mexican 
borders.  The  divisions  of  the  immigrant  stream 
and  the  importance  of  the  different  stations  may 
be  seen  in  the  accompanying  table : 


LETTING  IN— SHUTTING  OUT  43 

Port  1904  1905 

New  York   606,019  788,219 

Boston    60,278  65,107 

Baltimore    55.940  62,314 

Philadelphia    19.467  23.824 

Honolulu    9054  11.997 

San  Francisco 9.036  6,377 

Other  Ports  23,702  24.447 

Through  Canada 30,374  44.214 

The  immigration  inspectors  deserve  great 
praise  for  the  way  they  perform  their  difficult 
task  of  sorting  out  those  who  deserve  to  be  sent 
back.  They  soon  become  expert  judges  of  hu- 
man nature  and  acquire  the  knack  of  forming  a 
pretty  just  estimate  of  an  immigrant's  character 
at  a  keen  glance  or  two.  The  work  of  the  medi- 
cal inspector  is  comparatively  simple  and  sure, 
for  it  is  not  easy  for  the  diseased  immigrant  to 
hide  his  malady  from  the  skilled  surgeon.  The 
inspector  whose  business  it  is  to  stop  the  contract 
laborer,  the  criminal,  the  assisted  pauper,  the 
prostitute,  has  a  more  difficult  task,  for  he  has  to 
rely  largely  on  his  own  judgment  and  the  state- 
ments of  the  immigrant.  It  is  easy  to  see  how, 
under  such  conditions,  many  immigrants  who 
should  be  excluded  are  able  to  gain  admittance  to 
the  country.  The  man  with  a  criminal  record,  the 
man  who  is  deserting  his  wife  and  children,  the 
man  who  comes  under  contract  of  employment,  if 
he  is  of  fair  appearance  and  can  answer  the 
questions  which  are  put  to  him  with  some  show 
of  honesty,  stands  a  good  chance  of  deceiving  the 
inspector.     This  is  clearly  not  the  fault  of  the  in- 


44     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

spector;  the  trouble  lies  in  the  incompleteness  of 
our  inspection  system — a  system  which  gives  such 
tempting  opportunities  for  violating  the  law. 

Violations  of  the  law  are  undoubtedly  frequent 
and  constant.  The  greed  of  the  steamship  com- 
panies and  of  American  corporations  that  em- 
ploy cheap  labor  is  at  the  bottom  of  much  of  the 
deception.  There  is  a  law  which  provides  that 
steamship  companies  which  bring  over  diseased 
aliens  whose  disease  might  have  been  noted  by  a 
medical  examination  at  the  time  of  sailing  shall 
pay  a  fine  of  one  hundred  dollars  for  every  such 
alien.  The  companies  endeavor  to  cheat  the  law 
in  two  ways.  To  the  intending  immigrant  whose 
affliction  is  of  such  a  nature  that  no  concealment 
is  possible  they  offer  the  opportunity  to  get  into 
the  United  States  by  means  of  fraudulent  natu- 
ralization papers.  A  circular  recently  issued  by 
one  of  the  companies  states  that  it  will  accept  for 
passage  diseased  persons  who  claim  to  be  able  to 
prove  American  citizenship,  provided  that  they 
deposit  with  the  company  $150 — that  is,  a  suf- 
ficient sum  to  insure  the  company  against  loss  if 
the  persons  are  deported.*  As  there  are  great 
numbers  of  fraudulent  naturalization  papers  in 
existence  and  as  they  may  be  obtained  readily,  an 
easy  way  of  evading  the  law  is  pointed  out  to 
those  who  are  willing  to  make  a  false  claim  of 
citizenship.     In  cases  where  the  diseased  person 

*  Immigration,  by  P.  F.  Hall,  p.  281. 


LETTING  IN— SHUTTING  OUT  45 

can  be  "patched  up"  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  de- 
tection more  difficult,  many  of  the  companies  pro- 
vide opportunities  for  such  "cures"  to  be  under- 
taken. This  is  especially  true  in  the  case  of 
trachoma.  In  Marseilles,  for  example,  the 
"treatment"  of  trachoma  has  assumed  remarkable 
dimensions.  Here  most  of  the  emigrants  from 
the  Orient  come  on  their  way  to  the  United 
States,  and  as  is  well  known  the  Armenians, 
Syrians,  and  like  peoples  are  very  prone  to 
trachoma.  These  emigrants  are  examined  and 
those  who  are  found  to  have  the  disease  are 
turned  over  to  a  man  named  Anton  Fares,  who 
represents  the  French  transportation  company. 
He  gives  them  the  choice  either  of  going  to  Mex- 
ico via  St.  Nazaire  and  being  escorted  across  the 
American  frontier  by  guides  whom  he  claims  to 
furnish,  or  of  undergoing  a  course  of  "treat- 
ment" with  a  certain  doctor.  This  doctor  does  a 
flourishing  business  and  treats  upwards  of  a  hun- 
dred patients  a  day. 

Many  aliens  who  would  be  denied  admission 
at  regular  points  of  entry  are  encouraged  to  go 
to  Canada  and  be  smuggled  over  the  border  into 
the  United  States.  Says  the  Immigration  Com- 
missioner at  Montreal :  "The  Canadian  route  to 
the  United  States  is  known  to  every  unscrupulous 
agent  in  Europe  and  is  by  that  means  made  known 
to  the  very  dregs  of  society,  many  of  whom, 
having  been  rejected  at  the  United  States  ports, 
seek  this  easy  mode  of  escaping  the  effect  of  offi- 


46     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

cial  vigilance.  Aliens  classified  as  Canadian  im- 
migrants, simply  to  conceal  their  real  intention, 
furnish  a  greater  amount  of  specific  disease  and 
general  inadmissibility  than  all  the  immigrants 
examined  at  all  the  United  States  ports  of  entry 
combined."* 

The  contract  labor  law,  which  was  intended  to 
protect  our  American  workmen  in  much  the  same 
way  that  the  tariff  protects  the  manufacturers,  is 
extremely  difficult  to  enforce  and  is  continually 
violated.  This  is  largely  due  to  American  greed. 
Many  of  our  corporations  are  willing  to  break  the 
law  in  order  to  secure  the  added  profit  of  charg- 
ing American  prices  and  paying  foreign  wages. 
It  is  practically  impossible  to  punish  them  under 
the  present  laws,  for  "the  offenders  are  generally 
wealthy  corporations,  and  have,  as  a  rule,  so 
shifted  the  responsibility  for  the  offence  from 
their  own  shoulders  upon  some  minor  employe 
without  property,  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
establish  the  relation  of  principal  and  agent  be- 
tween the  offenders."  In  cases  where  the  proof 
of  guilt  is  convincing,  the  corporations  are  gener- 
ally able  to  escape  punishment  by  delaying  trial 
until  the  important  witnesses  are  dispersed  and 
"the  Government  is  compelled  to  choose  between 
two  equally  futile  courses  of  dismissing  the  pro- 
ceedings or  submitting  to  defeat."f 

*  Immigration  Report  for  1905. 

f  Commissioner-General  Sargent,  in  Annual  Report 
for  1905. 


LETTING  IN— SHUTTING  OUT  47 

Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  many  of  our  immi- 
grants begin  their  hfe  here  with  a  contempt  for 
American  law  ?  An  Itahan  woman,  whose  hus- 
band was  on  his  way  to  Italy  to  hire  for  a  Pitts- 
burg contractor  a  large  gang  of  laborers,  said 
that  many  of  her  neighbors  in  Pittsburg  had 
come  into  the  country  as  contract  laborers  and 
that  they  held  the  law  in  great  contempt.  The 
Commissioner-General  gives  a  needed  warning 
when  he  says  :  "It  is  not  reasonable  to  anticipate 
that  if  the  great  transportation  lines  do  not  re- 
spect the  laws  of  this  country  their  alien  passen- 
gers will  do  so,  nor  can  it  be  conceded  that  those 
aliens  whose  entrance  to  the  United  States  is 
effected  in  spite  of  the  law  are  desirable  or  even 
safe  additions  to  our  population." 

3.    THE  EXCLUDED 

When  an  inspector  decides  that  an  immigrant 
needs  further  examination,  he  sends  him  to  the 
Board  of  Special  Inquiry,  where  he  undergoes  a 
searching  cross-examination.  If  his  case  goes 
against  him,  the  immigrant  is  given  the  right  to 
appeal  to  higher  authorities  at  Washington,  un- 
less his  exclusion  is  due  to  idiocy  or  some  danger- 
ous contagious  disease.  The  table  on  page  48 
shows  the  number  of  persons  debarred  during  the 
past  fourteen  years,  together  with  the  causes. 

For  the  unfortunates  who  are  excluded  there 
is  much  grim  tragedy.     Coming  here  with  high 


48     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

THE  DEBARRED  FOR  THE  YEARS  1892-igos 


>.u 

, 

0 

a 

« 

0 

« 

11 

•SiSiS 

u 

•0 

C 

"  0, 

^-  E  iS 

0 

1) 

M-i 

Year 

Immi- 

0 

u  0 

°  s 

S8S 

« 

J3 

u 

<4 

0 

V 

grants 

in 
0 
■5 

0 
(U 

c 

« 

c 

0 

C 
0 

S  bo 
^5 

0 

c« 

u 
*-» 

c 
0 

J3 

0 

bo 

c 
<u 
0 

u 

PU 

ij 

CJ 

U 

H 

eu 

1893 

579.663 

4 

17 

r,oo2 

80 

26 

23 

932 

2,164 

0-5 

1893 

439.73° 

8 

43' 

81 

12 

518 

1.053 

0.4 

1894 

285,631 

5 

802 

15 

8 

553 

1,389 

I.O 

189s 

»58,S36 

1.714 

4 

I 

694 

3,419 

I.O 

1896 

343.267 

10 

2,010 

3 

776 

2,799 

0.8 

1897 

»3°.832 

6 

1,277 

I 

I 

3 

328 

1,617 

0.8 

1898 

229,299 

12 

2,261 

"58 

2 

79 

4»7 

3.030 

1.4 

1899 

3".7i5 

19 

2.599 

348 

8 

82 

741 

3.798 

'•3 

1900 

448,572 

32 

2.974 

393 

4 

2 

833 

4,246 

'•3 

1901 

487,918 

6 

16 

2,798 

309 

7 

SO 

327 

3.S16 

0.8 

1902 

648,743 

7 

27 

3.944 

709 

9 

27s 

4.974 

0.8 

1903 

857.046 

I 

23 

S.812 

1.773 

5' 

9 

1,086 

8,769 

I.I 

1904 

812,870 

16 

33 

4.798 

1,560 

35 

38 

1,501 

7.994 

I.I 

""1905 

1,026,499 

38 

92 

7,898 

2,198 

39 

19 

1,164 

11,480 

0.8 

Total  debarred  in  fourteen  years,  59,248. 


hopes,  only  to  be  deported,  they  find  themselves 
thrust  back  into  the  poverty  and  oppression  they 
sought  to  escape.  Especially  pathetic  are  the 
cases  of  the  poor  women  and  children  who  sailed 
into  New  York  harbor  with  faces  beaming  at  the 
thought  of  leaving  the  drudgery  and  grinding  life 
of  the  Old  World  far  behind,  and  who  are  forced 
to  return  with  no  hope  of  escaping. 

A  visit  to  Ellis  Island  gives  one  a  little  inkling 
of  the  darker  side  of  immigration.  "On  a  bench 
in  the  women's  'detained,' "  writes  Joseph  H. 
Adams,*  "sit  a  mother  and  seven  children,  all 
girls,  patiently  awaiting  the  father's  arrival  from 
*  The  Home  Missionary,  April,  1905. 


LETTING  IN— SHUTTING  OUT  49 

Chicago.  It  is  for  a  final  farewell;  one  child  is 
in  the  hospital ;  she  has  been  debarred  by  an  in- 
curable contagious  disease  and  the  whole  family 
must  return.  They  are  poor  and  it  has  taken  all 
his  little  store  of  money  to  bring  them  over.  On 
their  return  the  child  may  be  gotten  into  an 
asylum  or  a  hospital  for  incurables.  But  the 
chances  are  against  it  and  the  foreign  retreats  are 
not  like  our  own. 

"Here  are  two  children,  an  interesting  brother 
and  sister.  The  father  promised  to  meet  them 
but  he  cannot  be  found.  The  patient  little  Hun- 
garian boy  spends  most  of  his  time  for  four 
weeks  squatted  on  the  floor  with  his  back  against 
the  wall  hoping  every  day  that  his  father  will 
come.  He  has  not  told  his  little  sister  that  they 
will  have  to  go  back ;  she  will  take  it  too  much  to 
heart.  Subsequent  inquiry  disclosed  the  fact  that 
the  father  was  killed  shortly  after  the  children 
had  started  from  Budapest,  just  before  he  was  to 
start  East  to  meet  them." 

The  situation  of  the  immigrant  who  has  sold 
his  few  possessions  in  order  to  buy  a  ticket  to 
America  "where  gold  may  be  picked  up  in  the 
streets,"  and  who  finds  himself  deported,  is  truly 
pitiable.  He  cannot  take  up  the  old  life  again 
where  he  left  off,  for  he  is  homeless  and  pen- 
niless; nothing  but  poverty  seems  to  await  him. 
And  the  glib  "runner"  who  knew  that  he  would 
not  be  admitted,  yet  persuaded  him  to  make  the 
voyage,  goes  unpunished. 


50     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

4.     IMMIGRANT  DISTRIBUTION 

If  the  incoming  millions  could  be  made  to  go 
where  they  are  wanted  and  needed,  they  would  be 
lost  in  the  roomy  land,  and  many  of  the  problems 
of  immigration  would  solve  themselves.  But  the 
first  problem  of  all  at  present  is  how  to  get  the 
immigrants  where  we  think  they  ought  to  be. 
They  go  for  the  most  part  where  they  please ;  and 
certainly  go  where  wages  are  highest  and  work 
surest.  The  unskilled  laborers  find  a  ready  mar- 
ket, so  far,  in  the  great  cities,  and  there  they  con- 
gregate, to  their  own  detriment  and  that  of  the 
nation. 

The  need  of  a  better  distribution  is  realized, 
and  various  efforts  are  being  made  to  secure  it. 
As  it  is  now,  the  immigrants  show  a  marked 
tendency  to  settle  in  certain  States.  Instead  of 
going  where  they  are  most  needed,  they  are  con- 
gregating in  ever-increasing  numbers  in  the  most 
crowded  sections  of  the  country,  and  in  the 
largest  cities.  There  is  a  genuine  demand  for 
settlers  and  laborers  throughout  a  large  part  of 
the  South  and  West.  Instead  of  meeting  this  de- 
mand the  majority  of  our  immigrants  locate  in 
the  foreign  colonies  in  city,  manufacturing  town, 
or  mining  camp  in  the  North  Atlantic  and  Cen- 
tral States. 

The  rate  at  which  the  alien  stream  is  pouring 
into  a  few  States  is  really  astonishing.  During 
the  year  ending  June  30, 1905,  over  three-quarters 


LETTING  IN— SHUTTING  OUT  51 


Proportion  of   Imn/iigration   and    nuMbeir  of 

ItvlMIGRANTS    GOING    TO    EACH    STATE     DURING 
THE    FISCAL    YEAR    ENDING    JuNE    30.   (805, 


'  «v  PCKMisiiON  ©riwt  BVRCAU  «r  imimeRATioN 


62     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

of  the  total  number  of  immigrants  settled  in  New 

York,  Pennsylvania,  Massachusetts,  Illinois,  New 
Jersey,  and  Ohio.  That  is,  777,756  aliens  went 
to  these  six  States,  while  the  rest  of  the  country 
received  only  248,744.  The  fact  of  concentra- 
tion is  made  still  more  apparent  by  the  statement 
that  in  1905  the  States  of  New  York  and  Pennsyl- 
vania together  received  526,218,  or  more  than 
half  the  entire  number  of  aliens  admitted.  Rhode 
Island,  the  smallest  as  well  as  most  densely  popu- 
lated State  in  the  Union,  received  over  twice  as 
many  immigrants  in  1905  as  did  the  vast  State  of 
Texas.  In  the  same  year  only  half  as  many 
aliens  settled  in  the  great  territory  embraced  by 
North  and  South  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Georgia, 
Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Florida,  as  in  the  little 
State  of  Connecticut,  which  could  be  set  down  in 
the  Florida  Everglades. 

This  colonizing  habit  renders  the  task  of  assim- 
ilation doubly  difficult.  At  best  it  is  a  question 
whether  we  can  Americanize  a  million  foreigners 
a  year,  even  when  they  are  so  mixed  with  our 
own  people  as  of  necessity  to  be  brought  in  close 
contact  with  American  ways  and  institutions. 
But  when  they  are  so  thickly  congregated  as  to  be 
practically  out  of  touch  with  American  life,  when 
they  live  in  communities  that  may  be  fairly  called 
nothing  less  than  transplanted  sections  of  the  Old 
World,  the  task  of  making  them  into  American 
citizens  becomes  a  tremendous  one. 

In  this  connection  it  is  significant  to  note  that 


LETTING  IN— SHUTTING  OUT  53 

the  immigrants  who  show  the  highest  average  of 
ilHteracy  and  who  are  racially  the  hardest  to  as- 
similate are  the  most  apt  to  form  colonies  and  the 
most  given  to  settling  in  a  very  restricted  portion 
of  our  territory.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  aliens 
who  need  to  be  brought  most  closely  in  contact 
with  American  life  in  order  to  develop  good  citi- 
zenship are  the  very  ones  who  herd  together  in 
the  Ghettos,  Little  Italys,  and  "Patches"  (Slav 
settlements)  .  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  how- 
ever. An  immigrant  must  have  some  progress- 
iveness  to  strike  out  from  the  great  masses  of  his 
countrymen ;  he  must  have  the  price  of  a  railroad 
ticket  and  must  have  education  enough  to  enable 
him  to  learn  English.  So  long  as  we  allow  great 
numbers  of  ignorant  and  unenterprising  ahens  to 
come  here  at  will  we  must  expect  them  to  con- 
gregate, for  these  very  qualities  make  them  de- 
pendent on  their  fellow-countrymen. 

There  are  a  number  of  societies  which  look 
after  the  welfare  of  the  immigrants,  each  leading 
nationality  having  such  an  organization.  These 
do  an  admirable  work,  and  part  of  it  tends  to 
secure  distribution.  The  Hebrew  societies  have 
made  special  efforts  in  this  direction,  and  have 
sent  out  some  twenty  thousand  Jewish  immi- 
grants within  a  few  years  past  into  different  sec- 
tions of  the  country.  The  railroads  have  given 
attention  to  the  matter  also,  and  hold  out  extra 
inducements  to  immigrant  settlers.  The  most 
vigorous  movements  now  made  are  on  the  part 


54     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

of  the  South,  which  seems  to  have  awakened  to 
the  belief  that  a  large  influx  of  immigrants  would 
aid  in  the  material  development  and  help  solve 
the  labor  problem.  While  there  are  very  decided 
differences  of  opinion  in  the  South  as  to  the  wis- 
dom and  outcome  of  this  movement,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  various  agencies  are  active.  A  steam- 
ship line  has  been  projected  from  the  Mediter- 
ranean ports  to  Galveston,  Texas.  The  Four 
States  Immigration  League,  representing  Ala- 
bama, Louisiana,  Mississippi,  and  Texas,  is  busily 
at  work.  Not  long  since  a  meeting  of  general 
passenger  agents  was  held  in  Washington  to  dis- 
cuss with  Commissioner-General  Sargent  ways 
and  means  for  diverting  a  portion  of  the  immi- 
grant stream  into  the  Southern  States.  One  of 
the  objects  of  conference  was  to  consider  the  fa- 
cilities for  handling  a  large  number  of  immi- 
grants at  New  Orleans. 

South  Carolina  was  first  to  establish  a  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  Commerce,  and  Immigra- 
tion for  the  express  purpose  of  stimulating  immi- 
gration of  the  agricultural  class.  Commissioner 
Watson,  head  of  the  Department,  says  that  a 
number  of  colonies  are  projected  on  desirable, 
but  heretofore  unoccupied  lands  in  good  sections. 
A  number  of  other  States  have  created  immigra- 
tion bureaus,  the  railroads  have  opened  immigra- 
tion departments,  agents  are  engaged  in  the  cities 
in  the  work  of  informing  the  immigrants  now 
herding  there  of  the  better  conditions  and  ready 


LETTING  IN— SHUTTING  OUT  55 

work  out  in  the  country,  and  as  a  result  of  all 
these  efforts  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  South 
will  receive  large  numbers  of  immigrants. 

This  places  a  new  burden  of  responsibility 
upon  the  Christian  people  of  the  South,  and  the 
women  will  have  to  bear  their  share  of  it.  That 
some  of  them  are  awake  to  what  it  may  mean  is 
shown  by  the  article  from  the  pen  of  a  Southern 
woman,  given  in  Appendix  II.  Miss  Helm  sees 
one  side ;  and  the  report  of  a  worker  in  a  Florida 
Italian  mission,  under  Miss  Helm's  missionary 
board,  points  the  other  side. 


Ill 

THE  IMMIGRANTS   IN   THEIR   NEW  HOME 

I.    CHARACTERISTICS   OF  THE   NEWCOMERS 

WE  are  all  more  or  less  familiar  with  the 
general  characteristics  of  the  nation- 
alities which  predominated  in  our  im- 
migration up  to  within  a  few  years  ago.  We 
know  what  the  English,  Germans,  Irish,  Scotch, 
Swedes,  and  Norwegians  have  done  in  the  past 
and  are  doing  to-day  as  American  citizens,  and  we 
have  a  pretty  accurate  idea  of  their  national  traits 
and  capabilities.  There  is  little  need  to  dwell  on 
them  here. 

But  the  character  of  the  "new  immigration," 
the  term  used  to  cover  broadly  the  peoples  from 
southern  and  eastern  Europe — notably  the  Ital- 
ians and  Slavs — is  not  so  well  known.  Many 
radical  statements  have  been  made  both  for  and 
against  these  newcomers.  The  common  opinion 
is  unfavorable  to  them,  and  they  are  often  re- 
ferred to  as  the  degenerate  castaways  of  Europe 
who  are  making  America  the  dumping-ground 
for  the  nations.  It  is  neither  just  nor  wise,  how- 
ever, to  shower  indiscriminate  praise  or  blame 
upon  any  of  the  great  races  of  mankind,  or  to 
66 


IN   THEIR   NEW    HOME         57 

dispose  of  them  with  some  high-sounding  general- 
ity. As  the  Tuscan  proverb  has  it,  "Don't  judge 
a  ship  from  the  shore." 

2.    THE  ITALIANS 

We  shall  first  consider  the  Italians,  since  they 
are  most  in  evidence  in  all  sections  of  the  country. 
In  1905  there  was  not  a  State  or  Territory  in  the 
Union  without  Italian  immigrants,  even  distant 
Alaska  attracting  some.  The  Italians  began  to 
come  in  large  numbers  about  fifteen  years  ago, 
and  they  have  kept  on  increasing  until  now  they 
are  the  largest  single  element  in  our  total  immi- 
gration, and  number  nearly  two  millions.  The 
first  to  come  were  of  a  very  low  class  and  engaged 
in  organ-grinding,  rag-picking,  etc.  American 
opinion  of  the  Italians  has  been  shaped  in  no  small 
degree  by  these  early  arrivals,  and  there  are  many 
communities  which  still  think  of  an  Italian  as  a 
man  who  holds  a  string  to  the  other  end  of  which 
is  attached  a  monkey.  This  is  quite  as  intelligent 
and  just  as  the  view  still  held  in  some  parts  of 
Europe  that  America  is  a  land  of  painted  savages, 
and  that  only  within  the  stockades  of  New  York 
can  a  man  retain  his  scalp. 

Following  the  earlier  immigrants  came  fruit- 
erers, bootblacks,  shoemakers,  and  barbers.  As 
a  general  thing,  it  may  be  said  that  they  improved 
the  trades  they  engaged  in.  An  example  of  this 
is  given  by  a  grocer  in  New  York.  He  says  that 
he  kept  a  fruit  and  vegetable  stand  in  front  of  his 


58     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

store  more  for  the  convenience  of  some  of  his  cus- 
tomers than  anythino:  else,  for  the  stand  did  not 
pay.  The  attendant,  an  Irish  lad,  was  honest  and 
industrious  and  the  location  was  favorable,  but 
business  was  not  prosperous.  When  the  Irish 
boy  secured  another  position  the  grocer  hired  a 
young  Italian  to  take  his  place.  The  new  attend- 
ant immediately  set  to  work  arranging  the  vege- 
tables and  fruits  so  that  they  made  a  very  at- 
tractive display  and  caught  the  attention  of 
passers-by.  Trade  soon  picked  up,  and  now  the 
stand  is  doing  a  thriving  business.  The  Italians 
have  a  natural  love  of  the  beautiful  and  artistic. 
At  present  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  Italians 
are  coming  to  this  country.  The  opinion  is  very 
commonly  held  that  nearly  all  our  Italian  immi- 
grants are  unskilled  laborers,  fit  only  to  handle  the 
pick  and  shovel.  How  accurate  this  view  is  may 
be  seen  from  the  following  list  of  the  leading 
classes  of  Italians  admitted  in  1905,  which  will 
doubtless  occasion  some  surprise : 


Occupation 

Architects  

Clergy   

Editors   

Electricians    

Engineers,  professional   

Lawyers    

Literary  and  scientific  persons. 

Musicians   

Physicians   

Sculptors  and  artists 

Teachers   

Blacksmiths   


North 

South 

Italy 

Italy 

ID 

10 

52 

69 

9 

6 

24 

20 

20 

24. 

12 

25 

19 

15 

38 

240 

34 

72 

116 

52 

31 

45 

168 

909 

IN   THEIR   NEW   HOME         59 

North       South 
Occupation  Italy         Italy 

Bakers  201  571 

Barbers   82  1.718 

Butchers   65  278 

Carpenters  and  cabinet  makers. .  367  1,857 

Dressmakers    161  615 

Gardeners    30  165 

Masons  i,374  3,i6i 

Miners   1,843  492 

Shoemakers   287  4,004 

Stonecutters   409  567 

Tailors    239  2,591 

Farm  laborers  6,181  60,529 

Farmers    i,397  4,814 

Manufacturers    14  32 

Merchants  and  dealers 557  1,415 

Servants   2,752  8,669 

Laborers    14,291  56,040 

No    occupation,    including    chil- 
dren under  14 7,632  32,115 

A  little  study  of  the  above  list,  when  taken  in 
connection  with  the  fact  that  in  1905  the  immi- 
grants from  Southern  Italy  numbered  186,390 
and  those  from  northern  Italy  39,930,  shows  that 
the  northern  Italians  furnish  a  higher  percentage 
of  professional  men  and  skilled  laborers.  In  this 
respect  there  is  a  real  difference  between  the  two 
sections  of  the  country.  The'  northern  Italians 
are  of  Keltic  stock,  closely  akin  to  the  French  and 
Swiss,  and  have  carried  their  civilization  to  a 
higher  development  than  have  the  Iberians  who 
inhabit  the  south  of  Italy.  Industries  are  more 
diversified  and  advanced  and  the  general  pros- 
perity of  the  inhabitants  is  greater  in  northern, 
than  in  southern,  Italy. 

The  prejudice  that  exists  against  the  Italians 


60     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

is  largely  directed  toward  the  south  Italian  ele- 
ments. The  "dagos,"  we  are  told,  are  given 
over  to  crime,  to  their  Mafia  and  their  bloody 
*'black  hand"  societies.  Without  question  the 
Italian  commits  crimes,  sometimes  of  brutal  vio- 
lence. We  are  all  familiar  with  the  newspaper 
tales  of  Italian  stabbings  and  shootings,  and  we  de- 
plore them — but  not  more  so  than  do  the  majority 
of  the  Italians  themselves.  The  greater  part  of  the 
crimes  committed  by  the  Italian  are  against  the 
person  and  are  the  result  of  his  hot-headedness 
and  jealousy.  Accurate  figures  are  not  readily 
obtained,  but  those  which  show  the  proportionate 
amount  of  crime  among  the  various  races  in  some 
of  our  States  and  cities  are  not  unfavorable  to  the 
Italians.  From  the  tables  compiled  by  the  Prison 
Commissioners  of  Massachusetts  it  appears  that 
of  prisoners  committed  to  institutions  in  the  State 
the  Irish  averaged  27.1  to  every  thousand  of  that 
nativity.  Next  in  order  came  the  Welsh,  Eng- 
lish, Scotch,  and  Norwegians.  Following  these 
came  the  Italians,  with  12.9  to  the  thousand,  or 
less  than  half  as  many  as  the  Irish.  The  figures 
relating  to  intemperance  put  the  Italians  in  an 
even  more  favorable  light.  Says  Mr.  S.  J.  Bar- 
rows, Secretary  of  the  Prison  Commission  of 
New  York:  "When  you  take  the  Italian  popula- 
tion of  Boston  and  Massachusetts,  and  ask  how 
many  of  these  people  were  imprisoned  or  arrested 
or  committed  crimes  because  of  intemperance,  you 
find  that  they  rise  away  above  all  the  Northern 


IN    THEIR    NEW    HOME         61 

races.  The  Italian  people  are  a  temperate  people, 
and  while,  in  Massachusetts,  three  in  a  hundred 
of  the  Northern  races,  including  the  Scotch,  the 
Irish,  the  English,  and  the  Germans,  were  ar- 
rested for  intemperance,  only  three  in  a  thousand 
of  the  Italians  were  arrested.  What  a  remark- 
able bearing  that  has  upon  desirability  and  avail- 
ability !" 

The  proportion  of  Italians  arrested  in  propor- 
tion to  their  percentage  of  the  total  foreign-born 
is  not  excessive,  as  is  shown  by  the  figures  from 
three  cities  which  have  typical  Italian  colonies : 

Provi-       New 
Boston    dence        York 

Italian  percentage  of  total 

foreign-born    7.9        11. 2        11. 5 

Percentage  of  arrests  6.1         10.8        12.3 

The  charge  that  the  Italians  who  come  here 
are  given  to  pauperism  is  evidently  based  on 
ignorance  of  the  facts,  for  there  is  abundant  testi- 
mony to  the  contrary.  Out  of  2936  persons  ad- 
mitted to  the  New  York  Almshouse  in  1900,  19 
were  Italians  as  against  1617  Irish.  Even  the 
thrifty  Scotch  were  represented  by  20  more  pau- 
pers than  were  the  Italians.  The  New  York 
Italians  are  not  exceptional  in  this,  as  is  shown  by 
the  report  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Com- 
mission on  Immigration :  "The  proportion  of  the 
different  nationalities  among  the  paupers  in  our 
almshouses  varies  very  greatly.  The  Irish  show 
far  and  away  the  largest  proportion,  no  less  than 


62     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

7550  per  million  inhabitants,  as  compared  with 
3031  for  the  average  of  all  foreign-born.  The 
French  come  next,  while  the  proportion  of 
paupers  among  the  Germans  is  somewhat  unex- 
pectedly high.  The  remarkably  low  degree  of 
pauperism  among  the  Italians  is  possibly  due  to 
the  fact  that  such  a  large  percentage  of  them  are 
capable  of  active  labor,  coming  to  this  country 
especially  for  that  purpose." 

Our  Italian  immigrants  are,  indeed,  excep- 
tionally industrious  and  thrifty.  Employers  are 
generally  agreed  that  they  make  good  workmen — 
are  faithful,  prompt,  and  steady.  They  are 
thrifty  to  a  high  degree  and  can  manage  to  put 
money  in  the  bank  under  circumstances  in  which 
an  American  would  almost  starve.  The  follow- 
ing instance,  given  by  Mr.  Eliot  Lord,  is  a  com- 
mon example  of  Italian  industry : 

"Six  years  ago  I  was  invited  by  one  of  the  lead- 
ing hotel  keepers  in  New  Haven  to  drive  out  with 
him  to  look  over  a  market  garden  which  had  been 
planted  by  a  poor  Italian  and  his  family  only  a 
few  years  before,  near  the  suburbs  of  the  city. 
I  have  never  seen  anywhere  in  this  country  a  more 
thriving  garden,  nor  one  in  which  every  possible 
means  of  advancing  the  crops  that  were  available 
to  a  poor  man  had  been  more  keenly  noticed  and 
grasped.  The  owner  had  even  then  made  an  un- 
qualified success  of  his  venture.  He  had  largely 
extended  his  original  holdings,  was  employing  a 
number  of  his  own  countrymen  as  helpers,  and 


IN    THEIR   NEW   HOME         63 

delivering  his  produce  in  his  own  handsome 
market  vans  to  shipping  depots  and  an  extended 
range  of  customers  in  the  city.  His  garden  beds 
were  thoroughly  cleaned  of  weeds  and  stones,  and 
all  highly  fertilized  by  the  systematic  collection  of 
street  droppings  and  the  addition  of  other 
manures.  His  laborers  had  diligently  collected 
slightly  broken  and  refuse  window  glass  from  all 
parts  of  the  city,  and  he  had  used  this  glass  at  first 
exclusively  in  covering  his  plants  to  force  their 
spring  growth,  though  he  was  able  later  to  replace 
these  covers  with  neatly  constructed  forcing  cases 
and  greenhouses.  Even  with  his  rude  appliances 
at  the  start  he  was  able  to  market  his  vegetables 
nearly  two  weeks  earlier  than  the  average  of  his 
neighbors." 

The  increased  wealth  of  the  Italians  in  many 
of  our  large  cities  is  a  striking  evidence  of  their 
thrift.  Mr.  G.  C.  Speranza,  of  the  Society  for  the 
Protection  of  Italian  Immigrants,  computed  that 
in  New  York  in  1905  the  Italians  had  $15,000,000 
in  the  savings  banks ;  owned  real  estate  to  the 
value  of  $20,000,000;  owned  10,000  stores  in  the 
city  at  a  total  valuation  of  $7,000,000;  and  had 
about  $7,000,000  invested  in  wholesale  business 
of  various  sorts.  He  estimates  the  total  value  of 
the  property  belonging  to  Italians  in  New  York 
at  over  $60,000,000.  Such  figures,  when  read 
in  the  light  of  the  fact  that  these  people  brought 
over  very  little  money  with  them,  most  decidedly 
spell  thrift  and  perseverance. 


64     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

Many  of  the  Italians  are  inclined  to  be  too 
thrifty.  For  the  sake  of  a  few  extra  dollars  they 
are  willing  to  forego  many  real  benefits.  Too 
often  they  are  willing  to  live  in  overcrowded 
quarters  where  they  put  up  with  filth  and  unsani- 
tary conditions  that  to  an  American  are  nothing 
less  than  indecent.  And  too  often,  also,  they 
sacrifice  their  children's  education  for  the  sake  of 
the  added  pittance  which  comes  from  their  labor. 
Graham  Taylor  writes: 

Watch  that  little  frame  house  across  the  way  from 
Chicago  Commons.  It  is  the  port  of  entry  for  many 
Italian  immigrants  to  the  great  West.  See  the  watch 
kept  on  the  corner  from  the  little  porch.  At  last  an 
express  wagon  rounds  it,  full  of  men  and  women, 
bundles  and  babies  just  arrived  from  southern  Italy. 
Such  huggings  and  kissings  come  from  warm  hearts 
that  love  each  other,  and,  most  of  all,  their  children. 
No  parents  show  fiercer  intensity  in  their  love  of  their 
little  ones  than  most  of  these  immigrants.  And  yet  the 
factory  inspector  of  Illinois  reports  that  eighty-five  per 
cent,  of  those  arraigned  for  breach  of  the  child  labor  law 
are  these  very  foreigners,  and  eight  per  cent,  of  them 
these  same  Italians.  How  comes  it  about?  Not  all  at 
once,  to  be  sure.  When  the  hospitalities  of  the  friends 
who  receive  them  are  over,  and  the  hard  struggle  for  ex- 
istence is  on  in  earnest,  even  then  their  old  country 
peasant  simplicity  outlasts  the  first  onset  of  their  dis- 
appointing fight  with  poverty.  The  home  holds  on,  a 
while,  to  the  child.  Only  when  worst  comes  to  worst 
does  the  temptation  first  come  to  let  the  child  go  to  the 
shop.  Yet  there  are  far  fewer  such  cases  due  to  ex 
treme  poverty  than  one  would  expect. 

From  the  new  country  itself,  however,  comes  the 
worst  and  most  infectious  temptation  to  the  thriftless 
"thrift"  of  child  labor.  For  great  is  our  American  god 
"Thrift,"  and  Benjamin  Franklin  is  its  prophet !  Before 
these  mostly  illiterate  parents  get  our  uplift  toward  the 
appreciation  of  education,  they  get  their  downlet  to 
money-thrift  at  the  expense  of  childhood,  manhood,  and 


IN    THEIR    NEW   HOME         65 

womanhood.  This  same  "thrift,"  which  sends  the  child 
away  from  home  and  out  of  school  into  street-vending 
and  the  shop,  also  keeps  the  family  in  the  basement  of 
the  rear  tenement  after  the  father  owns  both  houses  and 
next  door. 

The  Italian  immigrants  show  a  very  high  rate 
of  illiteracy.  Out  of  every  hundred  from  North- 
ern Italy  14  could  not  read  or  write;  of  those 
from  Southern  Italy  56  out  of  every  hundred 
were  illiterate.  They  are  not  illiterates  from 
choice,  however,  and  a  goodly  proportion  show  a 
strong  desire  to  improve  every  opportunity  given 
them  to  learn  to  read  and  write.  The  experiment 
of  the  Society  for  Italian  Immigrants  in  giving 
instruction  to  men  in  the  big  labor  camps  is  an  in- 
structive and  suggestive  one.  The  first  attempt  at 
opening  a  school  was  made  in  a  camp  near  Pitts- 
burg where  about  500  Italians  were  employed. 
How  ready  the  men  were  for  such  aid  may  be 
seen  from  the  following  abridged  account : 

We  went  first  to  the  shanty-store.  The  men  con- 
gregate at  this  store  building  at  least  once  a  day  and 
here  the  opening  of  a  school  had  been  announced  and 
discussed.  I  said  to  the  crowd.  "Do  you  really  want 
a  school?"  "Sure,"  was  the  reply — they  all  know  that 
word,  "sure." 

Mr.  De  Luca,  beckoning  to  the  carpenter  to  follow, 
led  the  way  to  the  quietest  spot  for  a  school,  as  he 
thought,  namely,  a  vacant  shanty  facing  the  great  basins 
of  the  plant  and  facing,  at  one  side,  the  hills.  The 
carpenter  received  his  instructions  That  was  Friday, 
September  8.  By  Monday,  rough  benches  and  con- 
tinuous board  desks  in  two  rows  encircled  the  end  com- 
partment of  the  long  shanty  and  in  the  evening  the 
school  began.  The  Maestra  was  escorted  from  the  store 
by  three  men  with  lanterns  while  other  lanterns  flickered 
in  the  gathering  crowd  behind. 


66     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

The  schoolroom  was  quickly  filled.  The  light  was 
dim  and  there  was  time  for  little  else  except  steady 
registration,  each  man,  as  he  applied,  being  tested  as 
to  his  reading  capacity,  and  every  man  wanted  to  buy  a 
book — even  the  little  water  bearers  of  eleven  and  twelve. 
It  was  evident  by  many  signs  that  the  new  institution 
was  warmly  approved ;  they  wanted  the  school  every 
night — not  excepting  Saturday  and  Sunday.  Nothing 
could  have  been  more  courteous  and  thoughtful  than 
the  manner  of  these  men,  nothing  heartier  than  their 
"Good  Night,"  "Buona  Noite." 

The  three  lantern  bearers  escorted  the  teacher  safely 
home.  By  Wednesday,  forty  men  had  crowded  into 
the  schoolroom — ten  more  than  could  be  accom- 
modated, and  after  that  the  attendance  averaged  about 
thirty-five,  the  men  coming  and  going,  sometimes  being 
absent  for  several  days  on  special  jobs  or  on  night  work, 
but  always  returning  and  the  enrollment  always  grow- 
ing.    The  total  enrollment  was  sixty-two. 

By  removing  a  partition  the  space  was  doubled ;  a 
couple  of  tables,  some  chairs,  and  several  hanging  lamps 
were  bought ;  blackboards  of  slate-cloth  were  set  up 
and  now  began  the  work  of  our  visiting  helpers.  Per- 
haps the  most  valuable  feature  of  this  camp  school 
experiment  was  the  co-operation  of  the  different 
churches  in  the  neighborhood.  Both  the  Catholic  and 
Protestant  churches,  five  in  all,  regularly  furnished 
helpers  on  the  evenings  assigned  to  them — and  with 
volunteer  helpers  almost  every  evening  each  pupil  re- 
ceived some  individual  attention. 

Five  weeks  of  steady  work,  five  evenings  per  week, 
tested  the  reality  of  a  demand  for  instruction  among 
camp  laborers.  The  laborers  of  this  camp  are  from 
Southern  Italy — Calabria,  the  Basilicata  and  the  Abruzzi. 
Of  the  sixty-two  men  who  enrolled,  not  more  than  one- 
fifth  were  absolute  beginners ;  one-third  could  read  very 
well  in  Italian,  several  were  strikingly  bright,  several 
could  speak  some  English,  all  did  good  steady  work  and 
no  pupils  could  be  more  docile,  more  tractable,  more 
anxious  to  be  guided.  In  fact,  pathetic  eagerness  and 
attention  were  the  rule,  and  the  volunteer  helpers  be- 
came greatly  interested  in  their  pupils. 

If  schools  can  succeed  in  interesting  such  men 
amidst  the  coarse  influences  of  a  large  labor  camp 


IN    THEIR    NEW    HOME         6V 

we  need  not  despair  of  educating  the  Italians. 
Indeed,  as  a  people  they  have  a  high  regard  for 
education,  and  respect  the  educated  man.  Italian 
boys  and  girls  in  our  public  schools  show  alert 
and  plastic  minds.  Their  interest  in  intellectual 
pursuits  is  easily  aroused. 

Hot-blooded,  volatile,  when  compared  with  the 
Anglo-Saxon,  artistic  in  temperament,  good- 
natured,  fun-loving,  industrious,  easily  influenced 
for  good  or  bad,  the  Italian  immigrant  is  an  in- 
teresting addition  to  our  population.  He  has 
great  capacities  for  development.  He  comes  of  a 
great  race — a  race  that  in  ancient  times  gave  the 
world  Greek  civilization,  in  modern  times  the 
Renaissance.  Italy  has  produced  a  brilliant  suc- 
cession of  artists,  poets,  musicians,  and  scientists. 
A  people  that  gave  birth  to  a  Savonarola,  martyr 
for  religious  freedom,  and  to  a  Garibaldi, 
champion  of  human  liberty,  cannot  be  very  far 
out  of  sympathy  with  American  ideals.  It  is  for 
us  to  say  whether  the  Italians  remain  aliens  or  be- 
come Americans.  They  have  large  possibilities 
for  good  or  evil.  They  present  a  most  hopeful 
field  for  evangelistic  effort.  They  are  open- 
minded  and  good-hearted.  As  one  who  has  seen 
much  of  them  says,  "They  admire  a  good  man, 
and  have  a  desire  to  be  good  themselves."  If  this 
be  true  of  the  men  it  is  doubly  true  of  the  women. 


68     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

3.     THE  SLAVS 

The  Slavs*  have  been  described  as  being  "a 
few  centuries  behind  the  rest  of  the  civilized 
world."  When  we  read  about  conditions  in  Rus- 
sia and  consider  the  present  state  of  civilization 
in  Galicia,  Servia,  Dalmatia,  or  Roumania,  we  are 
apt  to  feel  that  the  Slavs  are  still  on  the  lower 
rounds  of  the  ladder  of  progress.  Certain  we  may 
be,  at  least,  that  in  the  mining  regions  of  Penn- 
sylvania, where  they  have  gathered  in  large  num- 
bers, the  Slavs  are  disliked  and  often  despised. 

Reasons  for  this  are  not  far  to  seek.  They  tell 
us  that  the  Slavs  are  mentally,  socially,  and 
morally  undeveloped ;  that  they  live  like  beasts, 

*  The  term  "Slav"  is  commonly  applied  to  all  our 
immigrants  from  Russia,  Austria-Hungary,  and  the 
Balkan  States.  From  an  ethnologist's  point-of-view 
this  classification  is  incorrect,  for  the  Magyars  (Hun- 
garians) and  Roumanians  come  of  dififerent  race  stock; 
but  for  the  purpose  of  this  volume  the  ordinary  group- 
ing is  sufficiently  correct.  Who  are  meant  by  the  term, 
and  how  many  of  the  various  groups  were  admitted  in 
1905,  is  shown  in  the  following  table  : 

Poles    102,437 

Slovaks    52.368 

Hungarians    46,030 

Croatians  and  Slovenians   3S.104 

Lithuanians    18,604 

Ruthenians    14.473 

Bohemians  and  Moravians II.757 

Roumanians  7,8i8 

Russians  (Muscovites)    3>746 

Dalmatians,  Bosnians,  and  Herzegovin- 

ians    2,639 

Servians,     Bulgarians,     and     Montene- 
grins      2,043 


IN    THEIR    NEW    HOME         69 

lower  the  tone  of  the  community,  and  are  pos- 
sessed of  but  one  virtue — courage.  Most  of  the 
pictures  that  we  get  of  them  are  not  prepossessing. 
Says  Dr.  F.  J.  Warne,  in  writing  on  "The  Slav 
Invasion"  :  "These  Slavs  come  not  along  the  high- 
way, with  their  household  effects  in  wagons,  but 
by  trail  across  the  mountains  from  the  railway 
station  at  Hazleton,  with  their  belongings,  few  in 
number,  in  blanketed  bundles  and  trunk-like  boxes 
slung  across  their  backs.  The  women,  of  whom 
there  were  but  few,  carried  with  seeming  ease 
huge  bundles,  one  on  top  of  the  head  and  one 
under  each  arm,  and,  like  the  men,  represented 
a  beast-of-burden  adaptability  to  the  most  exact- 
ing physical  labor.  Eight  men  and  one  woman 
took  up  their  abode  in  the  house  in  which  the 
families  of  the  Scotchmen  had  resided.  The 
cooking  utensils  of  the  newcomers  were  indicative 
of  their  hard  necessities,  being  meager  in  quan- 
tity and  of  poorest  quality.  Chairs  and  bureaus 
were  conspicuous  by  their  absence ;  nor  were  beds 
or  carpets  among  their  household  effects,  the  new 
occupants  being  content  with  rolling  themselves 
in  semblances  of  blankets  and  sleeping  upon  the 
uncarpeted  floor.  Their  supply  of  clothing  was 
limited  to  the  clothing  they  wore." 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  men  willing  to  live  in  such 
fashion  could  crowd  out  English-speaking  labor, 
for  the  American  workman,  as  a  rule,  demands 
wages  which  will  give  him  a  home  and  a  fair  de- 
gree of  comfort  for  his  wife  and  children.     He 


70     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

doesn't  want  his  wife  to  dress  in  rags,  to  go  about 
the  streets  barefoot,  to  forage  the  countryside  and 
railroad  tracks  for  fuel,  and  bring  home  heavy 
bundles  of  coal  or  wood  upon  her  head.  He  is 
ambitious  for  his  children  and  likes  to  have  them 
go  to  school.  But  this  is  not  the  case  with  a  Slav. 
He  expects  his  wife  to  do  manual  labor  and  puts 
his  children  to  work  as  soon  as  they  are  able  to 
earn  the  merest  pittance. 

The  unmarried  Slavs  usually  live  together  in 
groups  of  from  five  or  six  to  twenty.  Their  mode 
of  life  is  described  by  Dr.  Warne:  "In  a  certain 
mining  town  there  are  fourteen  Slavs,  all  un- 
married and  with  only  themselves  to  support, 
who  rent  one  large,  formerly  abandoned,  store- 
room. This  is  taken  care  of  by  a  housekeeper, 
who  also  prepares  the  meals  for  the  men.  Each 
man  has  his  own  tin  plate,  tin  knife,  fork,  and 
cup ;  he  has  his  own  ham  and  bread  and  a  place 
in  which  to  keep  them.  Some  things  they  buy  in 
common,  the  distribution  being  made  by  the 
housekeeper.  For  beds  the  men  sleep  on  bunks 
arranged  along  the  walls  and  resembling  shelves 
in  a  grocery  store.  Each  has  his  own  blanket ; 
each  carries  it  out  of  doors  to  air  when  he  gets  up 
in  the  morning  and  back  again  when  he  returns 
from  his  work  at  night.  The  monthly  cost  of  liv- 
ing to  each  of  these  men  is  not  over  four  dollars. 
They  spend  but  little  on  clothes  the  year  round, 
contenting  themselves  with  the  cheapest  kind  of 
material  and  not  infrequently  wearing  cast-off 


IN    THEIR    NEW   HOME         n 

garments  purchased  of  some  second-hand  dealer. 
For  fuel  they  burn  coal  from  the  culm-banks  or 
wood  from  along  the  highway,  which  costs  them 
nothing  but  their  labor  in  gathering  it.  In  many 
cases  the  unmarried  Slav  mine-worker  'boards' 
at  a  cost  of  from  five  dollars  to  twelve  dollars  a 
month."  His  wants  tend  to  increase,  however, 
and  his  condition  to  improve. 

American  ways  are  not  altogether  lost  upon  the 
Slav.  Here  is  an  example  of  how  the  civilizing 
process  is  going  on  wherever  he  is  brought  into 
contact  with  American  modes  of  living.  A  Slav 
who  had  been  attending  the  services  held  by  a 
Protestant  missionary  in  a  dismal  slum  neighbor- 
hood told  the  missionary  one  evening  that  he  had 
had  a  christening  at  his  house  the  night  before 
and  that  there  had  been  a  good  deal  of  drinking; 
but  he  vowed  that  no  more  liquor  should  come 
into  his  house.  He  gave  notice  of  this  to  the 
eighteen  boarders  who  in  day  and  night  shifts 
occupied  the  two  upstairs  rooms  of  his  little 
dwelling.  They  might  go  to  the  saloon,  but  if 
they  continued  to  live  with  him  they  must  bring 
no  drink  home.  Most  of  the  boarders  agreed  to 
this  and  remained  with  him.  Shortly  afterwards 
he  joined  the  church,  and  through  his  influence 
sixteen  of  his  boarders  did  the  same.  The  civiliz- 
ing process  went  on,  and  one  day  he  came  to  the 
missionary  and  asked  him  if  he  thought  it  would 
do  to  take  fewer  boarders.  He  wanted  his  wife 
to  find  time  to  go  to  church.     He  gradually  re- 


72     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

duced  the  number  of  boarders  until  there  were 
only  four  to  be  taken  care  of.  This  gave  his  wife 
time  in  which  to  learn  to  read.  At  last  he  de- 
cided that  he  wanted  to  "live  like  the  Americans," 
with  no  boarders  and  a  parlor  where  no  one  slept. 
And  so  it  has  come  about  that  the  man,  his  wife, 
and  their  little  children  live  by  themselves  in  a 
tiny  three-room  cottage.  This  is  what  the  Gospel 
does. 

To  know  the  Slav  at  his  best,  and  to  appreciate 
his  possibilities  as  an  American,  we  must  know 
him  in  his  home  land.  The  conditions  under 
which  he  lives  in  America  are  not  favorable  to 
him.  They  preserve  most  of  his  bad  characteris- 
tics and  give  but  little  opportunity  for  the  display 
of  his  better  ones.  The  life  from  which  most  of 
our  Slavic  immigrants  come  is  the  old  peasant  life 
that  has  persisted  in  parts  of  Europe  since  feudal 
times.  The  peasants  live  in  little  villages,  from 
which  they  go  out  to  till  their  tiny  farms.  The 
women  assist  in  the  ploughing,  the  gathering  of 
crops,  as  well  as  in  other  forms  of  outdoor  labor. 
The  boys  and  girls  look  after  the  herds  of  sheep 
and  cattle.  In  the  winter  there  are  spinning  bees 
at  which  young  and  old  are  busied  with  loom  and 
distaff  while  songs  and  legends  help  to  make  the 
time  pass  swiftly.  There  are  frequent  festivals 
and  pretty  traditional  observances  at  Christmas 
and  Easter,  at  midsummer  and  harvest  home. 
The  Slav's  wonderful  gift  for  music  and  color 
fills  the  whole  primitive  life  with  poetry.    "Every 


IN    THEIR    NEW    HOME         V3 

occasion  and  act,  every  wood  and  hill  and  stream 
has  its  adornment  of  custom,  superstition,  or 
legend  which,  with  its  glamour,  veils  the  hard  and 
sordid  sides."  Here  in  America  there  is  as  yet 
little  or  no  outlet  for  the  Slav's  imagination  or 
genius  of  expression. 

The  Slav  is  blessed  with  a  sturdy  body.  He 
can  endure  long  hours  of  severe  toil  and  can 
withstand  the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold.  Noth- 
ing seems  too  heavy  for  the  women  to  carry.  In 
addition  to  the  huge  burdens  which  they  bear  on 
their  heads  they  will  frequently  carry  a  two-  or 
three-year-old  child  hung  over  their  backs  by 
means  of  linen  clothes.  "They  marry  young," 
writes  Miss  Balch,  "bear  a  child  a  year  and  age 
fast.  In  Pennsylvania  I  heard  the  other  day  of  a 
Slav  woman,  whose  child  was  born  about  mid- 
night, who  afterward  got  up  and  prepared  an 
early  breakfast,  and  at  9  a.  m.  was  out  barefoot  in 
the  snow  hanging  up  a  wash  done  since  the  meal." 

Dr.  Peter  Roberts,  in  his  exhaustive  study.  The 
Anthracite  Coal  Communities,  gives  us  many  in- 
teresting side-lights  on  Slav  character  and  modes 
of  living.  The  difference  between  the  domestic 
life  of  the  English-speaking  miner  and  the  Slav 
is  significant ;  a  comparison  of  the  homes  of  newly 
married  couples  reveals  this  difference.  Says  Dr. 
Roberts : 

In  the  houses  of  "white  people"  the  front  room  is 
carpeted  and  comfortably  furnished.  Here  they  en- 
tertain   their    friends.     In    the    next    room,    which    is 


74     THE    INCOMING   T^TTLLIONS 

generally  large  and  serving  as  a  kitchen  and  dining 
room,  the  floor  is  covered  with  rag-carpet  and  a  large 
strip  of  oil-cloth  or  linoleum  under  the  stove.  The 
cooking  stove  and  all  utensils  are  new — nothing  else 
will  do  for  "young  America."  A  plentiful  supply  of 
crockery,  a  dining  room  table  and  half  a  dozen  chairs, 
give  the  room  a  comfortable  appearance.  The  stairs 
leading  to  the  second  story  are  generally  carpeted.  The 
front  bedroom  is  carpeted  and  furnished  with  a  bed- 
room suite  of  eight  pieces.  One  other  bedroom  will 
generally  contain  a  bed  so  that  the  family  may  enter- 
tain a  friend  in  case  of  need.  The  third  bedroom — a 
small  room  generally — is  used  for  storage.  Add  a  heat- 
ing stove,  and  a  home  where  the  average  native-born 
young  people  of  mining  communities  begin  life  is 
complete. 

The  Slav  discards  carpet  and  oil-cloth.  If  a  few 
strips  of  rag  carpet  are  used,  it  is  a  sign  of  an  advance 
above  the  ordinary  racial  standards  of  living.  The 
cooking  stove  is  generally  bought  at  a  junk  shop.  The 
cooking  utensils  are  few  and  tinware  often  serves  as  a 
substitute  for  crockery.  A  common  kitchen  table  and 
chairs  to  match  complete  the  furnishings  on  the  first 
floor,  if  made  up  of  one  room.  If  there  are  two  rooms, 
then  the  front  room  has  one  or  two  beds  in  it ;  no  carpet 
and  no  bedroom  suite  of  "eight  pieces."  When  shown 
one  of  these  rooms  we  had  to  sit  on  the  trunk  of  one  of 
the  boarders,  for  there  were  no  chairs  there.  The  room 
or  rooms  on  the  second  floor  have  beds  in  them  and  a 
few  trunks.  If  a  heating  stove  is  purchased,  it  is  the  old- 
fashioned  bell-shaped  kind,  bought  secondhand,  which 
is  a  good  heater,  and  the  practical  Slav  wants  heat  and 
not  nickel-plate  and  polish.  All  here  are  articles  of 
necessity,  not  a  trace  of  luxury  seen  anywhere. 

There  is  little  room  for  sentiment  in  these 
homes.  The  husband  is  lord  of  the  house  and  the 
wife  must  hold  herself  in  strict  subjection  to  him. 
Division  of  labor  is  carried  out  to  the  smallest 
detail,  and  all  work  in  the  home  belongs  to  the 
wife.  Napoleon's  saying,  "A  husband  ought  to 
have  absolute  rule  over  the  actions  of  his  wife," 


IN   THEIR   NEW   HOME         75 

is  the  code  by  which  most  of  these  Slav  famihes 
are  governed.  The  domestic  ethics  which  pre- 
vail among  the  men  savor  very  largely  of  that 
of  marriage  by  purchase.  According  to  this  view 
the  wife  is  the  property  of  her  husband,  for  which 
he  has  paid  a  price  and  which  may  be  used  accord- 
ing to  his  will.  Being  considered  as  more  of  a 
beast  of  burden  than  her  husband's  partner,  the 
lot  of  the  wife  is  a  hard  one.  Large  families  are 
the  rule  and  the  strain  of  bearing  and  rearing  ten 
or  a  dozen  children,  when  added  to  the  other 
heavy  domestic  duties,  often  breaks  the  women 
down  while  their  husbands  are  still  in  the  vigor 
of  manhood.  It  is  common  in  the  mining  regions 
to  see  these  prematurely  old  women,  worn  out, 
their  frames  shattered,  their  spirits  dead  to  rap- 
ture or  despair. 

There  are  exceptions  to  the  domestic  lordship 
of  the  Slav  men,  however.  Dr.  Roberts  relates 
this  instance :  "Last  summer,  while  in  an  office  of 
a  justice  of  the  peace,  a  Slav  was  brought  in  by 
the  constable  charged  with  attempt  to  defraud. 
He  was  passive,  as  many  of  them  are.  But  sud- 
denly his  wife  came  on  the  scene  and  immediately 
the  affair  became  dramatic.  She  argued  with 
much  vim  and  turned  from  constable  to  creditor 
and  again  to  the  justice  of  the  peace  with  dramatic 
action  worthy  of  a  Terry  or  a  Siddons.  She 
saved  two  dollars  in  costs.  When  the  storm  was 
over,  the  constable  said:  'She's  a  holy  terror.' 
'Yes/  added  the  justice,  'two  years  ago  she  killed 


76     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

her  liusband  by  throwing  the  boiling  contents  of 
a  coffee  pot  into  his  face,  and  six  months  after 
that  sheep-head  of  a  man  married  her.'  Evi- 
dently that  man  lived  under  muliocracy." 

When  under  the  influence  of  liquor,  or  when 
their  passions  are  otherwise  aroused,  the  Slavs 
fight  with  a  brutality  and  savagery  that  is  foreign 
to  Americans.  The  Slavs  choose  the  first  weapon 
that  lies  within  reach — a  list  of  weapons  used  in 
assaults  includes  stones,  knives,  revolvers,  razors, 
chains,  dinner-pails,  axes,  lead-pipes,  cuspidors, 
hammers,  picks,  shovels,  etc. — or,  if  no  object  is 
handy,  they  use  their  teeth  and  boots.  The 
women,  too,  when  they  are  enraged,  are  quite  as 
fierce  and  savage  as  the  men.  Slav  women  and 
mothers  are  adepts  at  Billingsgate,  and  threaten 
to  commit  outrages  in  language  which  would 
shock  an  ordinary  American  community.  Squab- 
bles between  neighbors  usually  bring  forth  threats 
of  violence :  one  neighbor  proposes  to  break  the 
other's  leg  and  is  threatened,  in  turn,  with  having 
her  teeth  knocked  out  or  her  house  dynamited. 

The  Slav  women,  like  all  women,  are  suscep- 
tible to  the  charms  of  fashion.  On  their  arrival 
in  this  country  their  heads  are  covered  with  silk 
scarfs  of  many  colors.  But  within  six  months, 
unless  she  should  chance  to  be  an  aged  grand- 
mother, the  new  arrival  discards  the  scarf  and 
dons  a  hat  which  is  covered  with  such  a  profusion 
of  brilliant  flowers  as  to  be  wholly  ludicrous.  She 
also  takes  to  the  corset,  puts  on  a  silk  waist  and 


IN   THEIR   NEW   HOME         V7 

a  gown  of  American  cut.  These  articles  do  not 
become  her,  for  her  early  life  of  farm  labor  has 
not  adapted  her  figure  to  the  tight-laced  require- 
ments of  American  fashion.  Whenever  she  buys 
a  gown  or  hat  her  husband  invariably  accom- 
panies her  and  his  taste,  or  lack  of  it,  decides  the 
purchase. 

On  her  way  to  and  from  church,  or  christen- 
ings and  other  festive  occasions,  the  Slav  woman 
may  be  arrayed  in  gay  attire,  but  the  moment  she 
crosses  the  threshold  of  her  home  the  thrift  of  her 
ancestors  takes  hold  of  her.  Hat,  waist,  and 
gown  are  carefully  stowed  away  and  the  every- 
day dress,  scanty,  dirty,  and  torn,  is  put  on  again. 
The  shoes  are  put  aside  and  she  goes  about  her 
work  barefooted.  Her  children  wear  very  little 
clothing  in  summer.  We  are  told  that  it  is  not 
unusual  to  see  the  little  tots  playing  about  the 
streets  stark  naked.  Generally,  however,  they 
are  covered  with  a  calico  dress.  "Going  bare- 
foot" is  the  rule  with  boys  and  girls. 

The  Slav  wife  in  the  mining  towns  attempts  no 
decorating  of  the  home.  There  are  no  bright 
ribbons,  no  fancy  work,  no  curtains,  and  very 
few  shades.  The  woman  who  carries  coal  on  her 
back  to  replenish  the  family  store,  chops  wood, 
takes  care  of  the  house,  does  the  family  washing, 
and  gives  birth  to  a  dozen  children  has  little 
leisure  for  fancy  work.  It  is  surprising  and 
cheering  to  note  the  improvement  and  brighten- 
ing up  after  the  Christian  missionary  has  entered 


IS    THE   INCOMING   MILLIONS 

the  home  and  had  chance  to  turn  the  thought  of 
the  wife  and  mother  to  something  higher. 

Intemperance  is  the  great  Slavic  weakness. 
Holidays  are  apt  to  be  given  over  to  drinking 
bouts  which  are  quite  likely  to  break  up  in  a  free 
fight.  At  home  their  governments  have  usually 
encouraged  drinking  because  of  the  revenue ;  in 
America  the  brewers  and  the  politicians  take  the 
place  of  the  European  governments.  The  Slavic 
peoples  are  easily  led  and  are  thus  peculiarly  open 
to  good  or  evil  influences.  The  brewers,  cheap 
politicians,  and  "shyster"  lawyers  are  the  pre- 
dominating influence  among  them  at  present. 

Passiveness,  lack  of  enterprise,  are  character- 
istics which  have  greatly  hindered  the  Slavs  in 
their  development.  With  seemingly  inexhaust- 
ible patience  they  have  borne  every  kind  of  civil 
and  religious  oppression.  Their  lack  of  enter- 
prise is  astonishing  to  an  Anglo-Saxon.  When 
left  to  themselves  they  are  apparently  content  to 
go  on  doing  things  as  they  have  been  done  for 
hundreds  of  years.  The  most  primitive  methods 
of  farming  and  the  most  primitive  industrial 
methods  still  survive  among  them.  Without 
doubt,  however,  close  contact  with  Americans 
will  alter  to  a  great  extent  these  factors  which 
have  retarded  the  advancement  of  the  Slavic 
peoples. 

Slow  of  intellect,  unprogressive,  and  apt  to  be 
intemperate  as  the  Slav  may  be,  he  is  usually  gen- 
erous, honest,  and  pious.     He  is  hospitable  and 


IN    THEIR   NEW   HOME         79 

will  share  what  he  has  with  his  neighbor.  The 
Slav  peasant  never  fails  to  pay  his  debts.  If  he 
is  actually  unable  to  do  so,  his  brother  or  other 
near  relative  assumes  the  debt.  Instead  of  giving 
a  note  or  mortgage  the  Slav  gives  his  promise, 
and  among  Slavs  that  is  usually  considered  suffi- 
cient guarantee.  The  great  majority  of  the  Slavs 
are  intensely  religious ;  but  mingled  with  their 
reverence  and  piety  is  a  deal  of  superstition  born 
of  ignorance.  It  is  the  task  of  American  Chris- 
tianity to  lead  the  Slavs  up  into  a  more  enlight- 
ened spirituality.  For  unless  this  is  done,  unless 
the  Slavs  are  surrounded  with  ennobling  and 
uplifting  influences,  they  will  become  a  grave 
menace  to  the  welfare  of  American  civilization. 
If  we  leave  them  to  themselves  in  their  labor 
camps  and  crowded  rookeries,  subject  to  the 
tender  guidance  of  the  political  "heeler"  and  the 
brewer,  we  are  surely  breeding  a  plague-spot  in 
the  RepubHc.  Nor  can  we  allow  the  child  labor 
in  the  mines  and  mills  without  raising  up  a  genera- 
tion that  will  hate  America  and  hail  anarchy. 

4.    JEWS  FROM  THE  SLAVIC  COUNTRIES 

Out  of  the  129,910  Hebrews  who  were  admitted 
in  1905,  92,388  were  from  Russia,  17,352  from 
Austria-Hungary,  and  3854  from  Roumania ;  in 
other  words,  the  Jewish  immigration  of  to-day 
is  overwhelmingly  from  the  lands  of  the  Slav. 
These  Jews  differ  considerably  from  the  Jews  of 
northern  Europe  with  whom  we  are  all  familiar. 


80     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

The  Russian  Jew  who  flees  from  persecution  is  a 
far  more  orthodox  person  than  his  cousin  from 
Germany  who  comes  to  increase  his  wealth.  He 
regards  the  commerciaHzed  Jew  of  northern  Eu- 
rope as  an  apostate.  He  has  clung  to  the  faith 
of  his  fathers  with  bulldog  tenacity  through  long 
and  bloody  centuries,  while  the  German  Jew  has 
devoted  himself  more  exclusively  to  getting  rich. 

The  number  of  skilled  laborers  among  them  is 
surprisingly  high  when  we  consider  the  common 
opinion  that  Jews  are  entirely  given  over  to  trad- 
ing. In  1905,  for  example,  60,135  of  these  immi- 
grants were  classed  as  artisans,  such  as  tailors, 
carpenters,  blacksmiths,  cabinetmakers,  lock- 
smiths, etc.  Their  illiteracy  averages  23  per 
cent.,  and  as  a  rule  they  are  very  poor.  By  far 
the  greater  proportion  settle  in  the  big  cities,  espe- 
cially New  York,  where  they  fill  the  sweatshops. 

They  are  an  industrious  and  saving  people,  pos- 
sessed of  good  mental  ability,  and  usually  have  a 
strong  personal  ambition,  a  passion  for  getting 
ahead.  They  appreciate  the  value  of  education 
to  an  unusual  degree  and  their  children  are  rapidly 
pushing  to  the  front  in  scholarship.  Their  free- 
dom from  drunkenness  and  crimes  of  violence  is 
notable.  Such  lawbreaking  as  they  do  is  usually 
in  the  violation  of  sanitary  regulations  and  in  try- 
ing to  gain  some  advantage  through  deceit  or 
trickery.  Qualities  which  make  them  unpopular 
are  their  contentiousness  and  greed.  The  family 
as  an  institution  has  a  very  strong  hold  on  them. 


IN    THEIR    NEW    HOME         81 

More  than  any  other  of  our  newer  immigrants 
they  seek  to  preserve  the  home  in  all  its  sacred- 
ness  and  purity.  Their  desire  for  race  and  reli- 
gious purity  prevents  them  from  intermarrying 
with  other  peoples,  so  that  their  assimilation  is 
well  described  as  "a.  mingling  rather  than  a 
fusion."  So  long  as  they  preserve  this  racial 
isolation  they  can  hardly  become,  in  the  best  sense, 
American  citizens. 

If  we  study  any  of  these  peoples,  we  shall  see 
how  essential  it  is  to  discriminate  and  to  discern 
between  things  and  folks  that  differ.  No  race  is 
either  bad  or  hopeless  altogether. 


IV 
AMERICANIZING  THE  ALIENS 

I.    THE  SOCIAL  UNDERTOW 

THE  alien  can  be  Americanized  upward  or 
downward.  It  is  well  to  know  what 
creates  the  down  grade  and  how  the  alien 
gets  upon  it. 

It  is  of  casual  interest  to  learn  that  in  New 
York  City  there  are  more  Germans  than  in  any 
city  of  Germany  except  Berlin ;  that  there  are 
enough  Irish  to  make  a  city  twice  as  large  as 
Dublin ;  that  there  are  more  Italians  than  may  be 
found  in  Naples  or  Venice.  It  is  significant  to 
learn  that  these,  together  with  the  other  peoples 
of  foreign  birth,  are  congregated  in  well-defined 
colonies,  separated  from  each  other  on  national  or 
racial  lines.  It  is  startling,  almost  disheartening, 
to  realize  that  these  colonies  are  un-American  not 
only  in  language  but  in  customs,  habits,  and  insti- 
tutions. 

A  short  ramble  in  New  York's  East  Side  takes 
you  through  several  such  colonies.  By  crossing 
the  Bowery  you  enter  first  the  vast  Jewish  colony, 
and  then,  walking  on,  find  yourself  in  Italy ;  going 
northeast  you  enter  Germany ;  circling  around  to 
83 


AMERICANIZING   ALIENS     83 

the  south  you  pass  through  a  negro  settlement 
and  a  section  of  Ireland  until  you  come  to  Syria ; 
if  you  continue  your  tour  you  may  visit  Bohemia, 
China,  and  Greece.  Nor  have  you  exhausted  the 
list.  You  will  also  find  these  colonies  in  our 
other  large  cities.  "In  Chicago,"  writes  Robert 
Hunter,  "to  my  own  knowledge  there  are  four 
Italian  colonies,  two  Polish,  a  Bohemian,  an  Irish, 
a  Jewish,  a  German,  a  Chinese,  a  Greek,  a  Scandi- 
navian, and  other  colonies."  The  same  thing  is 
true  of  Boston,  of  Philadelphia,  of  Pittsburg,  of 
Baltimore,  of  San  Francisco,  and  of  many  other 
cities.  As  Jacob  Riis  says,  the  only  colony  you 
cannot  find  in  New  York  is  a  distinctively  Ameri- 
can colony. 

An  American  who  lives  in  one  of  these  foreign 
communities  comes  to  feel  that  he  is  really  living 
on  foreign  soil.  He  finds  that  in  the  majority 
of  cases  the  thoughts,  the  desires,  the  traditions 
of  the  people  about  him  are  alien.  Their  news- 
papers and  literature  are  of  a  foreign  tongue ; 
their  passions  and  ideals,  "the  things  which  agi- 
tate the  community,"  are  of  a  foreign  world.  He 
finds  himself  a  stranger  in  his  own  city. 

Because  of  poverty  the  immigrants  generally 
draw  together  in  the  most  crowded,  the  poorest, 
the  most  criminal,  the  most  politically  corrupt  and 
vicious  sections  of  our  cities.  Our  "slums"  are 
largely  peopled  by  foreigners.  A  few  years  ago 
the  foreign  element  in  the  Chicago  slums  was  90 
per  cent,;  in  Philadelphia,  91  per  cent.;  in  New 


84     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

York,  95  per  cent.  "Already  these  great  foreign 
cities  in  our  slums  have  become  wildernesses  of 
neglect,  almost  unexplored  and  almost  unknown 
to  us."  And  these  "cities"  within  the  city  are 
growing  at  an  astonishing  rate.  Seven  out  of 
every  ten  of  our  present  immigrants  settle  in  our 
great  cities  or  in  certain  communities  of  the  four 
industrial  States,  Massachusetts,  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Illinois.  During  the  past  year 
not  less  than  half  a  million  new  arrivals  were 
added  to  our  tenement  population. 

How  are  these  aliens  being  Americanized? 
For  the  most  part  the  vote-buyer,  the  saloon- 
keeper, the  bribe-taker,  the  Jew  sweater,  the 
owner  or  agent  of  wretched  and  unsanitary  tene- 
ments, are  the  ones  who  are  teaching  them  what 
America  is,  what  America  stands  for.  If,  as  a 
nation,  we  are  apparently  indififercnt  to  their  com- 
ing, we  are  equally  indifferent  as  to  what  becomes 
of  them.  The  truth  is,  we  have  not  as  yet  appre- 
ciated to  any  great  degree  the  new  conditions  and 
problems  which  their  presence  has  created.  The 
people  are  just  awaking  from  sleep  to  discover 
that  during  their  slumbers  the  face  of  our  Ameri- 
can civilization  has  been  undergoing  change. 

2.     LIFE  IN  A  TENEMENT 

We  are  not  left  to  guesswork  as  to  the  con- 
ditions in  these  foreign  colonies.  Settlement 
workers  and  other  investigators  are  subjecting 
themselves  to  actual  living  month  in  and  month 


AMERICANIZING   ALIENS     85 

out  among  the  tenement  house  and  slum  popula- 
tion, so  as  to  know  by  experience  and  not  by  hear- 
say. One  of  these  brave  investigators  is  Mrs. 
Lillian  W.  Betts,  who  has  written  two  most  inter- 
esting books,*  besides  contributing  her  social 
studies  to  periodicals.  She  lived  for  a  year  in  one 
of  the  most  crowded  tenements  in  one  of  the  most 
densely  populated  sections  of  the  Italian  quarter 
in  lower  New  York.  The  facts  which  follow,  con- 
densed from  one  of  her  latest  articles,t  give  a 
vivid  idea  of  how  the  immigrants  from  Italy  are 
introduced  to  America — or,  rather,  to  Little  Italy 
in  America,  for,  as  is  shown,  they  know  prac- 
tically nothing  of  American  life,  and  are  imper- 
vious to  Americanization  so  long  as  their  colonies 
remain   intact. 

MRS.    betts'    story 

A  year's  residence  in  an  Italian  tenement  in 
New  York  taught  me  first  of  all  the  isolation  of  a 
foreign  quarter ;  how  completely  cut  off  one  may 
be  from  everything  that  makes  New  York  New 
York.  The  necessities  of  life  can  be  bought 
without  leaving  the  square  in  which  is  your  home. 
I  found  less  and  less  reason  for  crossing  this 
boundary  as  the  circle  of  my  interest  widened 
within  it.  If  one  with  every  social  and  business 
interest  outside  of  this  boundary  was  conscious 
that  life  could  be  lived  usefully,  even  happily ,with- 

*  The  Leaven  of  a  Great  City,  and  The  Story  of  an 
East  Side  Family. 

t  University  Settlement  Studies,  Jan.,  1906. 


86     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

out  coming  in  contact  with  the  New  York  outside 
it,  how  much  truer  this  is  of  the  people  whose 
every  interest,  social,  business,  and  church,  is 
within  it. 

After  a  little  it  occasioned  no  surprise  to  meet 
grandparents  whose  own  children  were  born  in 
New  York,  who  had  never  crossed  to  the  east  side 
of  the  Bowery,  never  seen  Broadway,  nor  ever 
been  north  of  Houston  Street,  There  was  no  rea- 
son why  they  should  go.  Every  interest  in  life 
centred  within  four  blocks.  I  went  with  a  neigh- 
bor in  the  next  block  to  St.  Vincent's  Hospital, 
where  her  husband  had  been  taken  after  an  acci- 
dent. I  had  to  hold  her  hand  in  the  cars,  she  was 
so  terrified.  The  terrors  of  the  journey  had 
driven  all  thought  of  the  cause  out  of  her  mind 
for  the  time.  She  had  lived  sixteen  years  in  this 
ward  and  never  had  been  in  a  street  car  before. 

There  were  five  sons  and  two  daughters  in  a 
family  which  had  been  in  this  country  fifteen 
years.  None  spoke  English  but  the  youngest, 
born  here,  and  she  indifferently.  She  had  at- 
tended school  when  she  felt  like  it,  and  was  as 
much  an  Italian  in  ideals  and  habits  of  life  as  her 
father  and  mother.  Every  article  owned  by  this 
family  had  been  bought  between  Grand  and  Hous- 
ton Streets,  Mulberry  Street,  and  the  Bowery  (the 
Italian  quarter).  Within  this  limit  of  territory 
all  worked,  all  their  social  affiliations  were  estab- 
lished, and  it  was  all  of  America  they  knew.  Of 
curiosity  they  had  none. 


AMERICANIZING   ALIENS     87 

This  seems  almost  incredible,  but  the  writer  is 
giving  facts,  not  fiction.  The  statement  which 
follows  concerning  the  evasion  of  our  school  laws 
and  the  ignorance  of  English  is  equally  remark- 
able :  This  house  in  which  we  lived  was  built  for 
twenty-eight  families ;  about  fifty-six  occupied  it. 
Of  those  who  remained  tenants  long  enough  for 
me  to  know  which  rooms  they  belonged  in,  I 
found  twenty-three  persons  over  eighteen  years 
of  age  born  in  this  country  who  had  never  at- 
tended school.  Five  were  young  married  women. 
One  man  who  has  been  in  the  country  twenty- 
eight  years  could  not  speak  or  understand  one 
word  of  English.  He  had  four  children.  A 
more  pathetic  sight  than  this  man  and  his  wife 
with  their  English-speaking  children  you  cannot 
imagine.  Nothing  but  compulsion  made  those 
children  use  Italian.  The  two  civilizations  were 
always  at  war.  This  was  the  only  family  where 
the  leaven  was  working.  The  eldest  child,  a  boy 
of  thirteen,  was  a  most  enthusiastic  American. 
He  knew  more  of  American  history,  its  heroes 
and  its  poetry  than  any  other  of  his  age  I  ever 
met.  He  brought  me  the  affidavit  of  his  father 
made  before  a  notary  public  that  he  was  fifteen 
years  old. 

"He  paid  a  dollar  for  that  and  we  have  had  a 
big  fight  of  words  about  it.  I  told  him  I 
would  not  go  to  work,  for  we'd  both  get  in 
trouble.  I  said  'Look  at  my  legs;  are  those  the 
legs  of  a  boy  of  fifteen?'     I  got  the  face  of  a 


88     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

baby  yet.  He  must  wait."  The  law  was  read  to 
him.  He  patiently  copied  it  and  went  back  to  his 
father  to  prove  he  was  right.  This  boy  had  never 
been  five  blocks  from  the  house  in  which  we  lived. 
He  earned  an  average  of  about  thirty-five  cents 
a  day  blacking  shoes  after  school.  He  removed 
his  hat  and  shoes  when  he  went  to  bed  in  winter ; 
in  summer  he  took  off  his  coat.  A  brother  and 
two  sisters  shared  the  folding  bed  with  this  boy. 
His  father  hired  the  three  rooms  and  sublet  to  a 
man  with  a  wife  and  three  children.  The  women 
quarrelled  all  the  time,  but  would  work  in  the 
same  room.  They  finished  trousers,  earning  about 
forty-five  cents  a  day  each.  They  had  the  barest 
necessities  of  life.  Weeks  passed  and  neither 
breathed  outdoor  air.  The  children  carried  the 
work  back  and  forth  and  settled  the  accounts  and 
did  the  errands. 

How  do  they  live  ?  One  woman,  with  a  daugh- 
ter twenty  years  old  who  had  never  been  in 
school,  had  three  in  her  own  family  and  took  nine 
boarders — men.  A  nephew  and  his  wife  kept 
house  in  the  same  three  rooms,  for  which  $i8  per 
month  were  paid.  The  woman  was  a  widow. 
The  daughter's  husband  was  in  prison  for  coun- 
terfeiting— "making  dirty  money,"  the  little  wife 
said,  cuddling  her  two-year-old  boy  in  her  arms. 
"He  no  ba^.;  he  good;  he  just  caught."  There 
was  not  the  slightest  sense  of  shame.  One  of 
my  neighbors,  whose  own  family  consisted  of  four 
adults  and  two  children,  occupied  an  apartment 


AMERICANIZING   ALIENS     89 

of  three  rooms.  She  took  boarders,  or  lodgers, 
having  at  one  time  seven.  These  men  owned 
mattresses,  which  in  the  daytime  were  rolled  up ; 
at  night  spread  on  the  floor.  A  few  owned  boxes, 
which  were  piled  on  top  of  each  other  against 
the  wall. 

One  of  the  boarders,  a  debonair  young  man, 
invited  me  in  to  see  the  preparations  he  had  made 
to  receive  his  bride,  expected  on  the  steamer  from 
Italy,  then  almost  due.  The  space  for  the  ornate 
brass  and  green  bedstead,  piled  high  with  mat- 
tresses and  pillows,  covered  with  lace-trimmed 
spread  and  cases,  had  been  secured  by  the  ejection 
of  two  men  lodgers  and  their  mattresses.  The 
cords  on  which  the  men  hung  the  clothes  they 
were  not  wearing  had  been  changed  to  permit  of 
the  hanging  of  gay  curtains  about  the  bed.  Every 
member  of  the  family  and  all  the  boarders  met  the 
bride,  escorted  her  to  the  church  on  the  block 
above,  where  the  marriage  took  place,  and 
brought  her  home,  a  little  child,  with  solemn  eyes, 
now  startled  by  the  strange  scenes  through  which 
she  had  come,  but  clinging  trustfully  to  the  hand 
of  her  youthful  husband.  The  next  day  she  was 
sewing  "pants,"  while  her  handsome  husband  lay 
back  in  a  rocker  playing  the  mandolin.  The 
bride,  beamingly  happy,  sat  at  her  task  until  her 
aunt  appeared  and  in  tones  there  was  no  mistak- 
ing told  the  young  husband  to  "get  out  and  hustle 
for  a  job."  So  life  began  for  the  two.  I  found 
at  the  end  of  a  month  that  the  bride  had  not  left 


90     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

those  rooms  from  the  moment  she  entered  them, 
and  that  she  worked,  Sundays  included,  fourteen 
hours  a  day.  It  is  no  wonder  that,  in  such  con- 
ditions, the  men  get  jealous  and  frequently  mur- 
der their  wives. 

The  Italian  woman  is  not  a  good  housekeeper, 
but  she  is  a  home-maker.  She  does  not  fret ; 
dirt,  disorder,  noise,  company  never  disturb  her. 
Rarely  is  the  space  she  occupies  her  own.  She 
must  share  everything  with  those  about  her.  She 
is  gregarious.  She  lives  in  the  open.  A  tene- 
ment-house hall  in  New  York  is  the  substitute  for 
the  road  of  her  village.  She  sits  in  the  doorway 
with  her  baby  crawling  through  the  hall.  Her 
neighbors  do  likewise.  She  cooks  one  meal  a 
day,  and  that  at  night.  Pot  or  pan  may  be  placed 
in  the  middle  of  the  table  and  each  help  himself 
from  it,  but  the  food  is  up  to  the  standard  of  her 
husband.  It  is  what  he  wants.  She  is  always  at 
home  to  receive  her  husband,  and  never  nervous. 
Together  they  will  wash  the  dishes,  or  he  will 
take  the  baby  out.  Rub-a-dub  will  sound  through 
the  watches  of  the  night  as  the  mother,  who  has 
sewed  all  day,  washes  until  midnight  and  after. 
The  husband  sits  smoking,  dozing,  talking.  He 
it  is  who  mounts  the  tubs  to  hang  the  clothes  on 
the  pulley.  From  ten  kitchens  in  this  model  tene- 
ment clothes  can  only  be  hung  out  on  the  lines  by 
mounting  the  washtubs.  They  work  together, 
these  Italian  husbands  and  wives.  Their  wants 
are  the  barren  necessities  of  life;  shelter,  food, 


AMERICANIZING   ALIENS     91 

clothing  to  cover  nakedness.  The  children's 
clothes  are  washed  when  they  go  to  bed,  and  often 
a  woman  will  wash  her  one  dress,  standing  in  her 
underclothing. 

Their  lives  are  so  migratory  that  things  are 
burdensome.  Life  is  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms. 
The  high  rents  and  uncertain  wages  make  the 
establishment  of  a  home  on  any  certain  basis  im- 
possible. The  home  depends  on  the  possession  of 
regular  wages,  and  few  of  the  Italians  who  come 
to  us  have  this  for  years,  if  ever.  I  have  found 
them  drifting  in  old  age  just  as  they  did  when 
they  landed,  bride  and  groom,  boy  or  girl. 
Hardly  two  months  are  they  in  the  same  rooms. 
This  constant  moving  destroys  the  love  of  home. 
There  is  no  courage  to  clean  and  arrange  belong- 
ings when  the  end  of  the  month  may  mean  an- 
other move.  Things  become  a  burden,  and  only 
things  absolutely  necessary  are  owned.  Cartage 
is  rarely  paid,  for  the  family  and  friends  do  the 
moving.  If  the  Attendance  Officer  grows  trou- 
blesome, the  Factory  Inspector  too  persistent,  the 
Health  Board  too  inquisitive,  it  is  so  easy  to  liter- 
ally pick  up  one's  bed  and  walk  into  another  mass 
of  human  beings  and  be  lost.  They  can  move  as 
silently  as  the  Arabs,  and  do  so  in  the  night 
watches.  A  residence  of  one  year  for  a  tenant  is 
remarkable.  So  uncertain  is  their  address  that 
Italians  living  here  years  have  their  mail  delivered 
at  their  banker's  and  call  for  it. 

When  the  emergency  arises  you  rarely  find  the 


02     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

Italian  family  penniless.  It  is  easy  to  pauperize 
them.  To  draw  money  from  the  bank  to  meet 
necessities  while  in  health  is  the  height  of  folly; 
the  Italian  will  resort  to  every  subterfuge,  ably 
seconded  by  his  neighbors  and  relatives,  to  pre- 
vent this.  The  new  arrival  is  coached  how  to 
avoid  calling  on  the  funds  he  has  brought  with 
him  from  the  other  side.  Housekeeping  may 
drift,  the  children  grow  up  as  untrained  as  weeds, 
but  the  financial  future  is  considered  and  pro- 
tected. Children  are  made  wage-earners  early, 
but  they  share  in  the  life  of  the  family  fully. 
They  know  how  much  money  is  in  the  bank  and 
where,  and  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  being  ac- 
cumulated. 

How  do  they  save  money?  A  daughter  mar- 
ried. She  kept  house  in  one  of  the  three  rooms 
occupied  by  her  family,  numbering,  without  the 
new  son-in-law,  twelve.  Five  of  these  were 
wage-earners.  Each  child  but  the  youngest  in 
this  family  had  been  put  in  some  institution  as 
soon  as  weaned,  to  remain  there  until  twelve  or 
thirteen,  when  it  was  brought  home  to  help  swell 
the  family  income.  Recently  the  father  of  this 
family  bought  a  three-story  tenement.  "It  be 
good  for  me  and  the  others,"  said  the  year-old 
bride;  "we  all  work  for  it."  This  is  typical.  In 
spite  of  such  overcrowding,  the  health  of  the 
people  was  good. 

There  was  one  crime.  The  janitor  decamped, 
leaving  a  wife  and  baby,  who  were  cared  for  by 


AMERICANIZING   ALIENS     93 

a  sister  and  her  husband.  One  woman  attempted 
suicide  and  became  insane  through  her  husband's 
unkindness.  How  thrift  gets  the  better  of  all 
other  ideas  is  shown  by  the  fact  of  a  wedding, 
the  bride  being  the  daughter  of  a  popular  banker. 
The  wedding  was  in  a  three-room  apartment  hired 
by  the  groom.  The  next  day  a  family  of  seven 
moved  in.  The  groom  had  sublet.  Subletting  is 
the  Italian  habit,  because  rent  is  the  outlay  they 
resent.  The  first  home  of  the  immigrant  is  made 
usually  with  one  of  his  countrymen  who  has  at 
least  learned  how  to  rent  rooms.  One  of  the 
commonest  and  saddest  sights  of  an  Italian  tene- 
ment is  this  arrival  of  the  new  family  in  rooms 
already  crowded,  to  make  its  first  home  in 
America.  Their  adaptability  is  marvellous. 
Within  a  week  they  are  as  settled  as  they  will  be 
at  the  end  of  years.  The  mother  is  sewing  "pants." 
The  neighbor's  children  have  taken  the  new  chil- 
dren to  school.  The  husband  has  acquired  a 
brass  check,  the  guarantee  of  wages,  or  has  begun 
his  rounds  with  a  pack  or  cart.  Two  hours  after 
a  family  has  moved  in,  I  have  seen  the  furniture 
placed  and  the  family  life  resumed  as  though 
never  interrupted. 

This  writer,  remember,  was  in  the  most  favor- 
able conditions,  not  the  worst.  She  lived  in  what 
is  known  as  a  model  tenement,  with  sanitary 
plumbing  and  light  rooms ;  built  for  speculation, 
as  cheaply  as  the  law  would  allow.  As  soon  as 
the  rooms  were  all  rented  the  house  was  sold  to 


94     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

an  Italian,  who  with  a  wife  and  five  children  oc- 
cupied the  rooms  back  of  his  store.  Within 
twenty-four  hours  he  leased  the  house  to  a  coun- 
trywoman. The  lease  guaranteed  the  owner  an 
income  of  $6000  per  year.  He  made  an  allow- 
ance of  $30  for  repairs.  The  lessee  was  re- 
sponsible for  violations.  The  house  must  yield 
profits  to  her.  She  was  indifferent  to  the  sub- 
letting, or  the  treatment  of  the  house,  if  no  ex- 
pense to  her  resulted.  Her  husband  attended  to 
all  repairs.  The  destruction  of  the  plumbing  was 
appalling.  Nails  were  driven  in  walls  and  wood- 
work. Wood  was  chopped  on  the  floor  till  the 
ceiling  fell ;  then  chopped  on  the  stone  floors  of 
hall  and  sills.  Water  spilled  on  the  floor  and 
dripped  through  to  the  ceiling  below.  No  one  ob- 
jected. It  was  the  daily  experience  to  be  without 
water  on  the  three  upper  floors  from  one  to  five 
hours  daily,  but  there  was  no  remedy.  Thirty- 
one  appeals  to  the  authorities  failed. 

There  were  fifty-six  families  in  the  house,  with 
an  average  of  five  children  to  each  of  the  twenty- 
eight  apartments.  These  children  used  the  halls 
as  playrooms,  leaving  all  debris  when  they  went 
to  the  street  or  their  rooms.  There  was  never  a 
day  when  all  the  children  of  school  age  were  in 
school.  It  was  a  fight  to  get  the  little  ones  in 
school  and  to  keep  them  there.  The  mother  was 
held  to  her  chair  or  stool  earning  money  to  pay 
rent.  School  was  a  prison  house  to  most  of  the 
children.     There  was  something  in  this  country 


AMERICANIZING   ALIENS     95 

that  made  you  go  to  school  if  you  could  not  hide. 
So  the  timid  ones  went.  The  classes  were  over- 
crowded. Too  often  the  teachers  did  not  realize 
how  little  the  language  they  used  was  understood 
in  their  classrooms.  It  is  all  a  sorry  problem, 
depending  for  solution  on  giving  these  children  a 
command  of  the  language  before  giving  them 
grade  work.  They  come,  thousands  of  them,  from 
homes  where  an  English  word  is  never  spoken. 
Truancy  is  common ;  why  not  ?  There  is  not  room 
for  them  in  the  schools.  I  saw  one  hundred  and 
seventeen  boys  brought  into  one  school  as  the  re- 
sult of  a  truancy  ''raid."  There  were  eight  vacant 
seats  in  the  whole  building  that  morning. 

There  is  no  more  disgusting  evil  in  the  tene- 
ments than  the  filled  and  overfilled  garbage  cans 
at  the  front  door,  against  which  clothing,  hands, 
and  faces  of  the  little  children  rub  as  they  pass  in 
and  out.  It  is  degrading  to  children  and  adults. 
I  have  known  garbage  cans  to  stand  at  the  door 
of  a  tenement  twenty-four  hours  in  hot  weather. 
This  is  the  rallying  place  of  the  tenants  when 
work  is  done.  The  whole  block  is  poisoned  by 
the  odors.     It  is  cruel. 

This  narrative,  growing  out  of  actual  contact 
with  conditions  most  of  us  avoid  and  do  not  like 
even  to  think  possible,  should  stir  a  spirit  of  sym- 
pathy that  will  not  rest  until  some  civic  reforms 
are  under  way. 


96     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

3.     CHANGES  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

Not  only  are  these  conditions  found  in  New 
York,  Chicago,  and  other  great  centres,  but  immi- 
gration has  been  rapidly  altering  the  character  of 
many  of  the  smaller  cities  and  industrial  com- 
munities of  the  North.  Such  New  England 
manufacturing  towns  as  Lowell,  Lawrence,  Fall 
River,  New  Bedford,  and  Woonsocket  are  over- 
whelmingly foreign  in  population.  In  many  of 
the  small  mill  villages  the  English  language  has 
practically  been  displaced  by  French  and  Italian. 
In  Pennsylvania  the  mining  regions  have  been 
foreignized.  Some  idea  of  the  vast  changes 
brought  about  by  the  new  immigration  may  be 
gained  from  the  following  account  by  Dr.  Warne : 

To  those  who  knew  it  twenty  years  ago  nothing 
marks  more  clearly  the  transformation  of  the  old 
Pennsylvania  mining  town  than  the  changes  in  its 
churches  and  its  religious  observances.  The  effect  upon 
the  religious  denominations  formerly  well  established 
in  the  anthracite  region  has  been  disastrous.  Facts  and 
figures  in  support  of  this  may  be  had  for  the  asking. 
It  is  sufficient  to  state  here,  by  way  of  illustration,  that 
within  the  past  ten  or  fifteen  years  no  less  than  fifteen 
Congregational  churches  have  been  forced  to  withdraw 
from  the  anthracite  regions.  At  Shenandoah,  where 
the  inroads  of  the  Slav  appear  in  their  most  serious 
proportions,  four  once  flourishing  and  largely  attended 
Welsh  churches  are  now  so  weak  that  their  disbandment 
seems  to  be  only  a  question  of  a  very  short  time.  Of 
these,  two  are  Baptist,  one  Congregational,  and  one 
Presbyterian,  the  latter  now  having  only  eighteen  mem- 
bers. They  are  but  the  skeleton  remains  of  once  thriv- 
ing churches. 

But  from  the  religious,  as  from  the  social,  view- 
point the  comparative  elimination  of  the  Protestant 
denominations  is  not  more  important  than  that  with  the 


AMERICANIZING   ALIENS     97 

Slav  has  come  a  large  and  insistent  element  professing 
atheism.  The  Continental  Sunday  is  fast  becoming  an 
institution  in  the  anthracite  fields.  Baseball  playing 
is  not  the  only  indication  of  this.  The  only  difference 
between  the  saloon  on  Sunday  and  on  a  week-day  is 
that  the  front  door  is  not  wide  open.  It  does  not  bar 
admittance,  however,  and  there  is  very  little  attempt  at 
secrecy  in  the  towns  where  the  Slav  influence  is  of  any 
political  importance. 

With  the  advancing  tide  of  Catholicism  has  come 
its  own  system  of  education — the  parochial  school. 
Whatever  the  value  of  these  schools — and  they  no  doubt 
have  their  own  merits,  which  need  not  be  discussed 
here, — there  is  strong  reason  for  believing  that  the 
parochial  school  in  the  anthracite  region  does  not  take 
the  place  of  the  public  school  system  in  the  making  of 
American  citizens  out  of  Slav  children.  In  spite  of 
official  reports  to  the  contrary,  one  learns  upon  good 
authority  that  the  two  parochial  schools  in  an  important 
mining  town  teach  no  English  to  their  pupils. 

On  Saturday  evenings  and  Sundays,  at  weddings, 
christenings,  funerals,  and  other  celebrations  and  ob- 
servances, drinking  among  the  Slavs  is  carried  to  ex- 
cess, the  occasion  not  infrequently  ending  in  a  free-for- 
all  fight,  and  sometimes  in  a  small  riot,  in  which  par- 
ticipants are  shot  and  stabbed  and  not  infrequently 
killed.  Many  of  the  most  serious  crimes  among  the 
Slavs  are  invariably  traced,  whenever  they  can  be  traced 
at  all,  to  some  drunken  orgy. 

These  are  facts.  As  to  placing  the  responsibility  for 
them,  we  should  not  be  too  quick  in  jumping  to  con- 
clusions. Nearly  every  Slav  saloon-keeper  has  had 
his  license  secured  for  him  by  some  one  or  more  of  the 
brewers  within  the  region  whose  product  is  sold  over 
the  bar.  And  these  brewers  are  of  the  English-speaking 
races.  Their  influence  extends  into  the  ordinance- 
making  bodies  of  the  mining  towns;  they  not  in- 
frequently dictate  municipal  and  even  county  control  of 
the  liquor  system.  I  was  told  of  a  case  where  the 
Mahanoy  City  authorities  not  long  ago  deprived  five  or 
six  Slav  saloon-keepers  of  their  licenses  because  of  the 
general  disrepute  in  which  the  places  they  conducted 
were  held.  The  brewer  who  was  "backing"  these 
saloonists  put  political  and  other  "influences"  to  work 
at  Pottsville,  the  county  seat,  and  within  a  very  short 
time  these  saloon-keepers  were  back  at  their  old  business. 


98     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

What  Dr.  Warne  says  about  the  parochial 
schools  is  worthy  of  serious  consideration.  The 
parochial  schools  are  un-American,  and  are  di- 
rectly hostile  to  the  common-school  system  of  this 
country.  Children  educated  in  the  parochial 
schools  get  a  definite  religious  instruction,  but 
they  fail  to  get  instruction  in  the  essential  Ameri- 
can principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 
These  schools  tend  to  perpetuate  foreign  ideas 
and  race  clannishness.  They  are  the  reverse  of 
democratic.  One  thing  the  Christian  women  can 
do  is  to  keep  jealous  watch  of  Roman  Catholic 
attempts  to  secure  appropriations  of  public 
moneys  for  the  support  of  these  sectarian  schools. 
We  cannot  prevent  the  maintenance  of  private 
or  church  schools,  but  we  can  prevent  the  diver- 
sion of  public  funds  for  their  support.  A  Roman 
Catholic  priest,  writing  on  church  extension,  tells 
the  Catholics  that  if  they  can  hold  the  Catholic 
immigrants  true  to  their  church,  this  country  will 
have  a  majority  of  Catholics  within  twenty-five 
years  at  the  present  rate  of  immigration  from  the 
Catholic  countries.  This  is  true.  And  who  can 
doubt  that  if  the  Catholics  obtain  a  majority  of 
votes,  they  will  proceed  to  divide  the  school 
moneys  and  replace  public  schools  with  the  paro- 
chial school  in  every  part  of  the  land  ?  In  regard 
to  the  schools  our  Christian  women  have  a  duty 
not  less  urgent  than  that  in  regard  to  the  homes. 
Through  evangelization,  moreover,  we  must  see  to 
it  that  the  immigrants  have  an  open  Bible  and  are 


AMERICANIZING   ALIENS     99 

taught  those  principles  of  liberty  that  will  make  it 
impossible  to  hold  them  in  a  spiritual  bondage.  It 
is  inevitable  that  in  proportion  as  they  become 
good  Americans  they  will  become  bad  Catholics, 
for  the  foundation  principles  of  Protestant  Ameri- 
canism and  Roman  Catholicism  are  irreconcilable. 
The  children  must  be  surrounded  with  influences 
that  make  for  true  Americanism. 

4.    THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  IMMIGRANTS 

It  is  frequently  said  that  however  it  may  be 
with  the  immigrants  themselves,  their  children 
will  become  good  citizens.  Under  favorable  con- 
ditions these  children  doubtless  do  grow  up  into 
loyal  and  progressive  Americans.  They  have 
shown  themselves  in  numberless  cases  to  be  apt 
scholars  in  school  and  quick  to  absorb  American 
ways.  But  the  very  quickness  and  adaptability 
of  these  young  Americans  becomes  dangerous  to 
them  and  to  the  country  when  the  conditions  sur- 
rounding them  are  vicious  and  degrading.  They 
are  just  as  ready  to  absorb  American  influences 
which  work  for  evil  as  they  are  to  absorb  those 
which  work  for  good.  The  sociologists  of  to- 
day are  well  agreed  that  environment  has  far 
more  to  do  with  character-product  than  has 
heredity. 

To  see  that  immigrant  children,  and  the  chil- 
dren born  in  this  country  of  immigrant  parents, 
have  every  opportunity  to  come  in  contact  with 
the  elevating  forces  of  Americanism  is  the  clear 


100     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

duty  of  Christian  men  and  women.  So  far  we 
have  largely  shirked  our  vast  moral  responsibility 
for  the  welfare  of  these  coming  Americans.  And 
what  is  the  result? 

The  statistics  of  crime  in  the  States  where 
aliens  settle  in  the  greatest  numbers  show  that 
the  percentage  of  crime  is  greater  among  the 
children  of  immigrants  than  among  the  immi- 
grants themselves.  "The  number  of  crimes  com- 
mitted by  the  foreign-born,"  writes  Robert 
Hunter,  "is  only  slightly,  if  at  all,  above  the  due 
proportion.  It  is,  however,  among  the  children 
of  foreign  parentage  that  criminals  are  found  in 
greatest  number.  The  most  vicious,  confirmed, 
incorrigible  child  criminal  is  the  child  of  foreign 
parents.  As  a  tough  and  outlaw  he  has  few,  if 
any,  equals.  The  tremendous  struggle  with  pov- 
erty which  the  foreigner  makes  in  order  to  survive 
means,  in  a  great  many  cases,  the  sacrifice  of  the 
child ;  in  other  words,  the  ruin  of  the  American- 
ized foreigner.  Vice  and  crime,  inconceivable  to 
the  adult  immigrant,  become  habitual  to  the  most 
neglected  children  of  foreign  parentage.  It  is 
really  appalling  to  observe  the  extent  of  this  ruin 
of  childhood.  Among  all  the  foreign  peoples,  and 
especially  among  the  Jews  and  the  Italians  of 
New  York  and  Chicago,  many  of  the  children  are 
developing  habits  of  vice  which  are  revolting  in 
the  extreme." 

A  visit  to  the  Juvenile  Court  in  New  York  or 
Chicago  will  convince  any  one  of  the  truth  of  this, 


AMERICANIZING   ALIENS   lOl 

and  of  serious  conditions  demanding  an  attention 
not  hitherto  given  to  this  matter  of  juvenile 
crime. 

One  of  the  chief  reasons  for  this  degeneration 
is  the  breaking  up  of  the  home  Hfe  caused  by 
tenement-house  conditions.  Much  of  the  family 
life  is  lost  when  the  family  is  transferred  from 
the  Old  World  village  to  the  New  World  slum. 
The  old  home  may  have  been  the  abode  of  pov- 
erty, ignorance,  and  superstition,  yet  it  was  a 
home.  The  new  home  in  the  tenement,  shared 
with  the  two  or  three  other  families  or  with  the 
inevitable  "boarders,"  is  little  more  than  a  trav- 
esty, and  often  is  a  place  where  decency  and 
purity  are  scarcely  possible  of  preservation. 

The  lessening  of  parental  influence  and  author- 
ity is  another  potent  cause.  The  fathers  and 
mothers  who  cannot  speak  English,  but  whose 
children  have  learned  it  at  school  or  on  the  street, 
soon  lose  control  over  them.  The  children  come 
to  feel  superior  to  their  parents  and  look  down 
on  them  as  "foreigners."  As  a  result  of  this  they 
are  left  with  very  little  religious  or  moral  guid- 
ance, for  our  public  schools  do  not  supply  such 
training,  and  the  philanthropic  institutions  and 
Sunday  schools  are  too  few  to  accomplish  so 
great  a  task. 

Another  fruitful  source  of  degeneration  among 
the  immigrant  children  is  child  labor.  Immi- 
grants, through  poverty  or  greed,  often  put  their 
children  to  work  at  ages  when  humanity,  and 


102    THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

even  prudence,  tells  us  that  they  should  be  at 
school  or  at  play.  Little  children  are  put  to  work 
in  the  tenement  sweatshops.  "Sickness,  unless 
it  be  mortal,  is  no  excuse  from  the  drudgery,"  says 
Jacob  Riis.  "When,  recently,  one  little  Italian 
girl,  hardly  yet  in  her  teens,  stayed  away  from 
her  class  in  the  Mott  Street  Industrial  School  so 
long  that  her  teacher  went  to  her  home  to  look 
her  up,  she  found  the  child  in  a  high  fever,  in 
bed,  sewing  on  coats,  with  swollen  eyes,  though 
barely  able  to  sit  up."  "The  Commission  ap- 
pointed to  settle  the  anthracite  coal  strike  in  1902 
heard  the  cases  of  Theresa  McDermot  and  Rosa 
Zinka.  These  children  represented,  though  un- 
known to  them,  seventeen  thousand  little  girls 
who  were  toiling  in  the  great  silk-mills  and  lace 
factories  of  the  mining  districts  of  Pennsylvania. 
The  chairman  could  not  repress  his  indignation 
vvhen  these  two  eleven-year-old  children  told  the 
Commission  how  they  left  their  homes  to  report 
at  the  factory  at  half-past  six  in  the  evening  and 
spent  at  work  the  long  hours  of  the  night  until 
half-past  six  in  the  morning."  Their  brothers 
work  about  the  mines  "as  soon  as  they  may  be 
trusted  not  to  fall  into  the  machinery  and  be 
killed." 

"The  nation,"  says  Robert  Hunter,  "is  engaged 
in  a  traffic  for  the  labor  of  children.  By  the 
introduction  of  the  little  ones  into  mines,  fac- 
tories, and  mills,  we  do  a  direct  evil  for  which  we 
are  definitely  responsible.     You  cannot  rob  chil- 


AMERICANIZING   ALIENS  103 

dren  of  their  play,  any  more  than  you  can  forget 
and  neglect  the  children  at  their  play,  as  we  now 
do  in  the  tenement  districts,  without  at  some  time 
paying  the  penalty.  When  children  are  robbed 
of  play  time,  they  too  often  reassert  their  right  to 
it  in  manhood,  as  vagabonds,  criminals,  and  pros- 
titutes. At  this  moment,  after  one  hundred  years 
of  war  has  been  waged  for  the  abolition  of  child 
slavery,  over  1,700,000  children  under  fifteen 
years  of  age  are  toiUng  in  fields,  factories,  mines, 
and  workshops. 

"These  figures  may  mean  little  to  most  persons, 
for,  as  Margaret  MacMillan  has  said,  'You  can- 
not put  tired  eyes,  pallid  cheeks,  and  languid  little 
limbs  into  statistics.'  But  if  our  legislators  could, 
by  any  means  whatever,  be  brought  to  see  clearly 
the  meaning  of  these  eight  words, — one  million 
seven  hundred  thousand  child  wage-earners, — the 
evil  would  once  for  all  disappear  from  this  coun- 
try. We  should  never  forget  one  sight  of  a  hun- 
dred of  these  little  ones  if  they  were  marched  out 
of  the  mills,  mines,  and  factories  before  our  eyes, 
or  if  we  saw  them  together  toiling  for  ten  or 
twelve  hours  a  day  or  a  night  for  a  pittance  of 
wage ;  but  that  we  do  not  see,  and  we  forget 
figures.  It  will  be  long  before  I  forget  the  face 
of  a  little  boy  of  six  years,  with  his  hands 
stretched  forward  to  rearrange  a  bit  of  machinery, 
his  pallid  face  and  spare  form  showing  already 
the  physical  effects  of  labor.  This  child,  six 
years  of  age,  was  working  twelve  hours  a  day  in 


104     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

a  country  which  has  estabHshed  in  many  indus- 
tries an  eight-hour  day  for  men," 

So  far,  child  labor  in  the  mills  of  the  South  has 
been  largely  confined  to  native  children,  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  "poor  whites."  About  twenty- 
five  thousand  children  are  being  employed  in 
twelve-hour  shifts  in  the  cotton-mills  of  the 
Southern  States,  and  the  conditions  under  which 
they  work  are  said  to  rival  those  existing  in  Eng- 
land during  its  worst  days  of  cotton-milling.  The 
Southern  people  have  now  a  splendid  opportunity 
to  do  away  with  the  evils  of  child  labor  before  the 
tide  of  immigration  sets  southward,  and  thus  save 
themselves  and  their  future  citizens  from  some  of 
the  problems  which  are  confronting  the  North. 
In  this  reform  the  Christian  women  of  the  South 
should  lead.  Women  are  as  yet  free  from  that 
sordid,  selfish  greed  for  wealth  that  in  its  making 
heeds  neither  the  lives  of  men,  women,  and  little 
children,  nor  the  welfare  of  the  nation. 

We  have  purposely  looked  upon  the  darker  side 
of  the  picture  in  this  chapter.  There  is  a  brighter 
side,  and  the  man  or  woman  who  sees  both  sides 
clearly  and  justly  need  not  be  a  pessimist.  Scores 
of  heroic  men  and  women  are  giving  their  lives 
to  the  cause  of  social  betterment ;  thousands  of 
immigrant  children  are  growing  up  into  splendid 
American  manhood  and  womanhood  ;  the  light  of 
American  ideals  is  penetrating  many  of  the  dark 
places.  But  as  a  nation  we  are  not  yet  fully 
awake  to  the  pressing  need  for  an  active  and 


AMERICANIZING   ALIENS  105 

vigorous  Christian  campaign  amongst  our  new 
neighbors,  and  until  we  do  realize  this  and  feel 
that  there  is  a  personal  call  to  service  for  each  one 
of  us,  we  can  well  afford  to  dwell  upon  the  ugly 
facts  of  immigration.  Indifference  is  both  stupid 
and  cowardly,  to  say  nothing  of  unchristian. 
Evils  must  be  seen  before  remedies  will  be  sought. 
The  surgeon  cuts  to  save,  and  the  operation  is 
painful  but  preservative. 


V 
WOMAN'S   WORK   FOR   ALIEN   WOMEN* 

I.    FORMING  PUBLIC  OPINION 

ALIEN  women  can  be  influenced  by  Ameri- 
can women  as  by  no  other  means.  The 
^foreigners  can  be  readily  reached  if  rightly 
approached.  The  approach  must  be  in  the  spirit 
that  begets  confidence.  It  must  be  instinct  with 
womanly  sympathy  and  kindness.  The  gospel  of 
neighborliness  must  be  practised  before  the  gos- 
pel of  faith  can  be  preached.  It  is  the  touch  of 
human  kindness  that  makes  the  whole  world  kin. 
If  our  Christianity  had  more  of  this  quality,  it 
would  easily  penetrate  the  hardest  armor  of  racial 
and  religious  prejudice.  A  loving,  sympathetic 
woman  can  make  her  way  anywhere.  This 
volume  has  been  written  in  the  profound  convic- 
tion that  the  Christian  women  of  America  have  a 
very  large  part  to  play  in  the  saving  of  America 
through  the  saving  of  the  millions  of  aliens  pour- 
ing in  upon  us.  These  millions  must  be  made 
over  into  Americans,  and  into  Christian  Ameri- 

*  In  connection  with  this  chapter,  special  study  should 
be  given  to  chapter  vii,  which  outlines  the  organized 
work  of  women  for  alien  women,  in  the  several  de- 
nominations. 

106 


WOMAN'S    WORK  107 

cans,  or  they  will  prove  a  menace  to  every  high 
ideal  we  cherish. 

Never  before  had  Christian  women  such  an  op- 
portunity as  is  now  presented  in  this  country 
through  immigration.  Some  noble  American 
women  have  gone  to  foreign  lands  to  carry  the 
gospel  to  women  there.  Here  tens  of  thousands 
of  women  may  be  missionaries  and  carry  the  gos- 
pel to  foreign  women  in  our  own  land.  The  work 
is  practicable,  pressing,  personal.  It  is  to  be  done 
through  organization,  through  home  mission  so- 
ciety and  church,  and  through  individual  effort. 

The  women  in  our  churches  are  at  the  fore- 
front in  every  good  work,  and  their  spiritual 
stimulus  is  everywhere  felt.  They  are  zealous  in 
fostering  and  extending  the  missionary  spirit. 
Their  response  is  quick  to  every  recognized  need. 
Now,  in  regard  to  immigration,  it  is  theirs  to  do 
certain  definite  and  essential  things  which,  if  they 
fail  to  do,  will  probably  not  be  done.  In  the  first 
place,  they  can,  and  therefore  should,  create  a 
new  national  conscience  with  respect  to  some 
needed  reforms. 

A  recent  writer,  considering  a  proposed  com- 
bination of  eight  thousand  women's  clubs  to 
secure  a  desired  end,  asks,  "What  may  not  this 
federation  efifect,  if  moved  by  a  common  im- 
pulse?" Suppose  we  take  the  church  instead  of 
the  club  as  our  centre  of  influence,  and  repeat  the 
question :  "What  purpose  of  good  might  not  be 
accomplished    if   the    Christian    women    of   the 


108     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

Protestant  churches  in  America  should  combine 
and  move  with  a  common  impulse?"  Why  not 
have  a  Protestant  Federation  of  the  Women  of 
America?  For  the  preservation  of  American 
ideals  and  institutions,  for  the  enforcement  of  law, 
for  the  protection  of  the  home,  for  the  safeguard- 
ing of  women  and  children,  there  is  no  agency  that 
can  do  so  much  as  the  Christian  womanhood  of 
America,  once  aroused,  united,  and  consecrated. 
All  that  is  necessary  is  for  the  women  to  become 
thoroughly  conscious  of  this  fact  and  its  attendant 
responsibility. 

One  of  the  worst  features  of  immigration  is 
the  thrusting  of  the  newcomers  into  an  environ- 
ment that  is  demoralizing  and  detrimental,  espe- 
cially to  the  women  and  children.  Whether  it  be 
in  the  tenement  and  slum  districts  of  the  great 
cities,  in  the  unsanitary  surroundings  of  the  mill 
towns,  or  in  the  mining  regions  of  Pennsylvania, 
West  Virginia,  or  Illinois,  the  conditions  are  such 
as  tend  to  immorality,  viciousness,  and  crime. 
The  Christian  women  can,  and  therefore  should, 
combine  for  the  creation  of  a  public  sentiment 
sensitive  enough  and  strong  enough  to  demand 
and  secure  reforms  of  such  evils  as  overcrowd- 
ing, unsanitary  tenements,  food  adulteration,  the 
sweatshop  system,  child  labor,  illegal  importation 
of  contract  labor,  and  defiant  violation  of  immi- 
gration and  other  laws.  In  moral,  ethical,  and 
religious  issues,  the  Christian  women  should  be 
the  exponents  of  the   national   conscience,  and 


WOMAN'S    WORK  109 

should  make  that  conscience  a  mighty  factor  that 
cannot  be  evaded. 

The  power  of  a  quickened  public  sentiment  is 
not  sufficiently  realized  or  utilized.  In  temper- 
ance reforms  and  legislation  the  women  have 
demonstrated  what  union  can  accomplish.  In 
Boston  the  sweatshop  evil  has  been  practically 
abolished  through  the  arousing  of  public  senti- 
ment by  a  few  zealous  and  determined  Settlement 
workers,  who  kept  up  the  agitation  until  an  in- 
dignant public  demanded  reform  legislation  and 
got  it.  The  same  thing  can  be  done  in  New  York 
and  Chicago.  And  it  can  be  done  in  the  matter  of 
child  slavery  as  well  as  in  that  of  the  sweatshop. 
It  is  simply  a  question  of  combination  and  deter- 
mination. If  it  be  desirable  to  have  some  further 
restriction  of  immigration,  such  as  the  reading 
test,  or  a  system  of  inspection  abroad,  or  a  limita- 
tion of  the  number  admissible  in  any  given  year 
from  a  given  country,  it  lies  in  the  power  of 
American  women  to  educate  the  people  to  the 
point  where  they  will  demand  the  proper  legisla- 
tion. 

2.    WORK  THROUGH  ORGANIZATION 

In  the  religious  sphere  Christian  women  can 
carry  out  any  measures  of  evangelization  to  which 
they  resolutely  set  themselves.  Through  their 
societies  they  can  employ  the  needed  missionaries 
to  visit  the  homes  of  the  foreigners  and  perform 
the  ministry  that  woman  only  can  render.  They 
can  bring  medical  missionaries  into  service,  just 


no     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

as  is  done  in  foreign  lands.  There  is  a  vast  unoc- 
cupied field  waiting  for  such  work  as  the  women's 
home  missionary  societies  are  adapted  to  do. 
How  this  field  can  be  cultivated  has  been  made 
known  by  such  object  lessons  as  the  University 
Settlement  in  New  York,  Hull  House  in  Chicago, 
the  South  End  House  in  Boston,  and  other  Set- 
tlements. These  organizations  are  philanthropic 
and  ethical  rather  than  religious,  for  they  are 
based  upon  the  principle  that  since  all  kinds  of 
religious  belief  and  no  belief  at  all  are  to  be  dealt 
with,  the  ends  desired  can  best  be  attained  by 
cultivating  the  social  and  moral  sense  and  leaving 
what  is  distinctively  religious  in  the  background, 
in  order  to  avoid  possible  controversy  and  di- 
vision. The  point  here  to  be  made  is  simply  that 
the  Protestant  churches  abandoned  the  downtown 
fields  in  the  great  cities,  practically  leaving  the 
tenement  house  population  to  its  fate.  What  the 
churches  failed  to  do  for  the  welfare  of  the  people, 
the  Settlements  have  tried  to  accomplish  in  their 
own  way,  so  far  as  improving  the  condition  of 
the  dwellers  in  tenements  is  concerned,  and  mak- 
ing cultivation  and  enjoyment  possible  to  thou- 
sands of  children  and  in  a  measure  to  their 
parents  as  well.  All  honor  to  the  noble  men  and 
women  who  are  devoting  their  lives  to  social  bet- 
terment, and  setting  an  example  of  sacrifice  that 
is  Christian  in  the  highest  sense. 

What  woman  can  do,  not  only  for  other  women 
but  for  general  reform,  is  well  illustrated  by  one 


WOMAN'S    WORK  HI 

of  the  leading  Settlement  workers  in  America, 
Jane  Addams  of  Chicago,  founder  of  Hull  House 
and  still  its  head.  It  is  not  saying  too  much  to 
give  Miss  Addams  credit  for  exerting  the  most 
powerful  influence  of  any  single  individual  in  the 
western  metropolis.  The  ward  politicians  have 
had  good  occasion  to  fear  her.  The  city  council- 
men  have  been  obliged  to  listen  to  her  protests 
against  tenement  house  evils.  The  State  legisla- 
tors have  heeded  the  public  opinion  created  largely 
through  her  efforts  in  behalf  of  labor  and  sweat- 
shop reforms.  But  this  wider  influence  is  sec- 
ondary to  the  personal  hold  she  has  upon  the  sec- 
tion of  the  city  in  which  the  foreign  population  is 
most  dense  and  the  work  of  Hull  House  per- 
formed. She  has  been  the  friend  and  adviser  of 
thousands  of  troubled  mothers,  the  inspirer  of  a 
multitude  of  boys  and  girls,  young  men  and 
women.  She  has  revealed  to  the  poor,  uncul- 
tured foreigners  and  Americans  alike,  what  a 
cultivated  American  home  life  is  like.  Most  of 
all,  she  has  by  her  own  life,  lived  among  these  peo- 
ple, and  by  the  lives  of  her  many  assistant  workers, 
drawn  from  all  quarters  and  circles  of  society, 
created  an  atmosphere  that  has  influenced  the 
entire  neighborhood.  Jane  Addams  is  a  talented 
woman,  it  is  true ;  but  she  has  not  done  a  mar- 
vellous thing  beyond  the  reach  of  others.  She 
has  shown,  rather,  what  a  woman  of  will,  per- 
severance against  great  obstacles,  dauntless  cour- 
age, and  absolute  consecration  to  the  service  be- 


112     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

lieved  by  her  to  be  the  highest  on  earth,  can  do 
with  her  Hfe,  when  she  throws  it  unreservedly 
into  the  doing  of  the  duty  next  her. 

What  she  has  done  through  the  Settlement  idea, 
Christian  women  can  do  through  distinctively 
religious  channels.  The  experience  of  improve- 
ment work  in  London  goes  to  prove  that  most 
successful  efforts  to  uplift  those  whose  environ- 
ment is  evil  and  wretched  are  made  by  institu- 
tional churches  and  missions  which  do  not  hide 
but  fling  out  the  Christian  banner,  and  boldly  de- 
clare that  the  Gospel  is  the  only  salvation  that 
saves.  The  Wesleyan  movement  in  London, 
which  is  described  in  a  little  volume  entitled, 
"The  Open  Church  for  the  Unchurched," — a 
volume  that  every  Christian  might  read  with 
profit, — has  demonstrated  the  possibilities  of  great 
institutional  evangelical  churches  in  the  foreign 
and  downtown  districts  of  our  great  cities.  Our 
Christian  women  could  aid  in  the  organization 
of  a  great  interdenominational  movement  in  New 
York  for  the  purpose  of  planting  a  number  of 
these  centres  of  evangelistic  and  evangelical  in- 
fluence, which  should  embody  the  philanthropic 
features  and  at  the  same  time  maintain  a  regular 
ministry,  with  a  constant  directing  of  attention  to 
the  needs  of  the  soul  and  the  way  of  salvation. 

3.    INDIVIDUAL  EFFORT 

It  may  come  a  little  closer  home  to  take  an  illus- 
tration of  personal  service  from  the  distinctively 


WOMAN'S   WORK  113 

religious  sphere.  The  author  is  acquainted  with 
this  worker  and  her  work,  and  has  felt  the  inspira- 
tion of  her  example.  In  a  New  England  city  where 
the  foreign  population  was  rapidly  increasing,  and 
where  the  Canadian-French,  Portuguese,  and  Ital- 
ians were  crowding  one  another,  a  Christian 
woman  felt  that  something  must  be  done  for 
them  in  a  religious  way.  She  was  as  busy  as 
other  women  with  homes  and  a  husband  to  man- 
age, but  her  children  were  grown  up,  and  she  had 
a  certain  amount  of  leisure  that  she  consecrated 
to  service.  First  she  visited  the  foreign  districts 
of  her  city,  and  found  conditions  that  made  it 
difficult  for  her  to  sleep,  as  memories  of  what  she 
had  seen  pressed  upon  her.  She  was  a  resolute 
woman,  and  human  need  appealed  to  her  prac- 
tically. She  went  constantly  to  the  Italian  dis- 
trict, taking  delicacies  for  sick  mothers  and  chil- 
dren, aiding  them  in  such  ways  as  were  possible, 
securing  work  for  some  of  the  unemployed  men 
whose  families  were  in  the  depths  of  poverty,  and 
gradually  winning  the  confidence  and  love  of  the 
people. 

For  a  long  time  her  ministry  was  one  of  philan- 
thropy, sympathy,  humanity.  She  always  had 
some  Testaments  in  Italian  to  give  away  when 
the  opportunity  seemed  ripe,  always  had  a  smile 
and  word  of  cheer,  and  more  and  more  frequently, 
as  she  studied  away  earnestly  at  the  Italian  lan- 
guage, found  a  chance  to  pray  with  the  women 
who  were  in   sorrow   or  pain.     She  got  some 


114     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

charitable  physicians  to  look  after  cases  where 
there  was  no  money  for  fees ;  secured  a  number 
of  young  women  helpers  in  the  work  of  visiting; 
got  her  pastor  deeply  interested  in  what  she  was 
doing;  and  patiently  kept  at  her  beautiful  work, 
regardless  of  her  own  comfort. 

Her  objective  was  a  mission  chapel,  but  she 
had  no  money  for  it  and  no  missionary.  She 
could  only  pray  and  hope.  The  missionary  came 
in  the  most  unexpected  way.  In  the  Italian 
colony  there  was  a  man  of  exceptional  ability  and 
fine  character,  a  watch  repairer  by  trade,  from 
North  Italy.  A  fellow  workman  chanced  to  be  a 
Christian  Swede,  whose  religious  conversation  and 
life  impressed  the  Italian  and  led  to  his  conver- 
sion. Full  of  missionary  impulse  and  of  the  joy 
of  salvation,  he  made  known  his  new-found  hope, 
and  his  story  was  listened  to  with  eagerness  by 
his  Italian  friends  and  acquaintances.  Working 
by  day  and  studying  his  Testament  by  night,  he 
soon  began  to  gather  a  company  and  preach  to 
them  the  gospel.  His  influence  grew  rapidly,  and 
in  him  the  worker  found  the  missionary  for  whom 
she  had  been  praying.  Presently  he  had  a  large 
following  among  his  people,  and  a  regular  place 
of  meeting  became  a  necessity.  The  good  woman 
put  in  some  of  her  own  money,  which  she  had 
saved  by  household  economies,  then  inspired 
members  of  her  church  with  interest  so  that  they 
helped,  and  after  much  time  and  labor  she  saw 
a  neat  mission  built  and  used.     The  Italian  kept 


WOMAN'S   WORK  115 

at  his  trade,  for  he  had  a  large  family  to  support, 
but  he  preached  on  Sunday  and  often  on  weekday 
evenings,  and  proved  eloquent  and  effective.  The 
mission  grew  rapidly,  and  is  to-day  a  gospel 
centre  in  an  Italian  colony.  Its  Sunday  school  is 
making  the  right  type  of  Americans  out  of  the 
children,  and  the  men  who  have  been  converted 
will  not  sell  their  votes  or  beat  their  wives. 

All  this  was  not  accomplished  without  opposi- 
tion from  the  priests  and  others  whom  they  in- 
fluenced. Various  forms  of  petty  persecution 
were  practised.  Before  the  chapel  was  built,  the 
mission  was  turned  out  of  one  house  after  an- 
other, because  the  property  was  bought  by  the 
Roman  Catholics  in  order  that  it  might  not  be 
used  for  a  Protestant  mission.  More  than  that, 
the  Italian  preacher  was  evicted,  and  could  not 
find  a  residence  near  the  mission,  since  the  land- 
lords had  been  warned  that  if  they  rented  him 
a  place  they  would  be  boycotted.  But  the  Chris- 
tian woman  was  brave  and  insistent,  and  her 
American  spirit  was  aroused  by  such  methods. 
She  stirred  up  the  people  until  a  philanthropic 
American  offered  the  converted  Italian  mission- 
ary quarters  where  he  could  be  permanent.  It  be- 
came a  question  whether  this  was  a  land  of  the 
free,  and  the  Christian  woman  won,  as  Christian 
women  always  will  when  the  issue  is  squarely 
joined. 

Then  she  set  about  organizing  a  second  mis- 
sion in  another  quarter  of  the  city,  where  a  second 


116     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

Little  Italy  was  established.  As  the  fruitage  of 
her  labors,  after  a  number  of  years,  she  can  point 
to  two  prosperous  and  largely  self-supporting 
mission  churches,  with  pastors  and  lay-workers, 
Sunday  schools  that  are  gathering  in  the  children, 
and  ceaseless  activities  that  make  for  the  thor- 
ough Americanization  of  the  colonies  that  other- 
wise would  remain  foreign.  This  is  woman's 
work  for  alien  women,  in  the  form  of  personal 
missionary  effort  that  is  possible  not  to  one  only, 
but  to  hundreds  and  thousands  of  women  in  our 
churches  throughout  the  land.  The  home  is  the 
point  of  approach,  where  there  is  a  home,  and  the 
Christian  woman  has  the  key  to  unlock  the  door. 
The  instance  given  above  is  a  conspicuous  one 
but  not  isolated. 

The  moral  of  this  is  plain:  Be  a  missionary. 
Do  not  stop  with  being  a  member  of  a  missionary 
society  and  a  contributor  to  its  funds  or  to  the 
home  and  foreign  mission  societies ;  do  not  think 
your  duty  is  done  when  you  have  attended  a  mis- 
sionary meeting,  or  offered  a  prayer  for  the  mis- 
sionaries, or  aided  in  making  up  a  missionary  box. 
Do  some  personal  missionary  work.  This  does 
not  involve  change  of  residence  or  occupation. 
If  you  cannot  discover  any  possible  opening  for 
such  service,  if  there  is  no  soul  unconverted  that 
you  can  approach,  if  there  is  no  person  in  need 
of  any  kind  that  you  can  help,  then  you  may  con- 
sider yourself  absolved  from  any  missionary  obli- 
gation.    But  your  situation  will  be  remarkable,  if 


WOMAN'S   WORK  ni 

that  is  the  case.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  you  have 
any  families  of  foreigners  in  your  vicinity  or 
town,  if  you  have  never  made  a  visit  in  the  sec- 
tions where  poverty  and  distress  are  always  pres- 
ent, then  let  the  joy  of  unselfish  service  enter  your 
heart  by  doing  some  helpful  deed,  and  bringing 
yourself  into  contact  with  human  need. 

Felix  Adler  expresses  a  deep  truth  when  he 
says:  "It  is  my  firm  belief  that  no  well-to-do 
family  should  be  without  the  bonds  of  relation,  of 
sympathetic  and  helpful  relation,  to  some  one  or 
more  poor  families  in  the  neighborhood.  I  be- 
lieve that  there  is  no  method,  no  way  possible 
of  educating  the  young  child  in  charity  so  effec- 
tively as  when  two  families,  the  helpful  family 
and  the  one  that  requires  to  be  helped,  are  in 
social  contact  with  one  another.  The  children 
can  thus  be  taught  to  do  personal  service  of  the 
most  valuable  kind,  and  the  interest  which  the 
father  and  mother  display  is  more  illustrative  of 
the  real  spirit  of  charity  than  a  thousand  gifts  of 
organized  institutions  for  charity."  This  is  un- 
questionably true.  And  the  effect  of  such  con- 
tact is  not  more  beneficial  to  the  helped  than  to 
the  helpers.  There  is  no  joy  like  the  joy  of  doing 
good,  of  making  others  happy,  of  putting  a  touch 
of  sunlight  into  darkened  lives. 

This  work  is  Christian  and  unselfish,  but  it  is 
self-protective  also.  The  only  way  in  which 
American  homes  can  be  safeguarded  is  by  doing 
everything  possible  to  elevate  all  home  life.     If 


118     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

the  streets  are  not  properly  swept  in  our  neigh- 
borhood, all  suffer.  If  crime  abounds  in  any  sec- 
tion, the  whole  section  suffers.  Common  inter- 
ests imply  common  duties,  and  Christian  women 
are  working  for  their  own  homes  and  children 
when  they  are  trying,  by  person  and  by  proxy,  to 
improve  the  home  conditions  of  the  foreign  popu- 
lation and  to  surround  the  children  of  these  aliens 
with  gospel  influences. 

If  the  philanthropic  Settlements  can  secure 
corps  of  volunteer  workers  from  among  the  up- 
town residents,  as  they  do,*  shall  it  be  said  that 
the  Christian  church  cannot  command  the  same 
kind  of  willing  and  consecrated  service  for  its 
high  purposes?  Shall  it  not  be  said,  rather,  that 
the  churches  have  not  organized  for  this  greatly 
needed  work,  and  have  not  appealed  to  the  heroic 
in  their  young  men  and  women?  We  cannot  for 
a  moment  doubt  that  if  our  Protestant  churches 
should  unite  in  establishing  evangelical  centres 
and  should  issue  a  call  for  workers,  there  would 
be     instant     response.     The     same     spirit    that 

*  The  University  Settlement  report  for  1906  states 
that  its  volunteer  workers  comprise  twenty-two  young 
men  and  women,  uptown  residents,  who  bring  with 
them  "gentleness,  kindness,  culture,  knowledge,  a  rich 
store  of  human  sympathy,  and  open  eyes  to  discern  the 
signs  of  the  times."  One  lady  in  her  own  home  in- 
structed a  poor  but  ambitious  person  in  piano  playing 
and  singing;  another  taught  a  girl  in  embroidery  at  her 
home,  thus  giving  her  glimpses  into  a  new  world. 
Would  there  were  more  of  such  intercourse  between  the 
fortunate  and  favored  and  those  whose  lives  are  cast 
in  the  disheartening  places. 


WOMAN'S    WORK  119 

prompts  our  bright  college  men  and  women  to  en- 
roll themselves  as  student  volunteers,  willing  to 
serve  wherever  God  would  have  them  go,  would 
bring  volunteers  in  ample  numbers  for  this  home 
mission  service,  which  is  not  less  among  foreign- 
ers but  is  done  in  our  own  land. 

The  work  that  has  been  done  is  sufficient  to 
prove  the  success  attendant  upon  tactful  ap- 
proach. It  needs  to  be  indefinitely  multiplied. 
The  need  is  too  great  to  be  met  by  regularly  em- 
ployed missionaries.  If  we  had  enough  of  them, 
they  could  not  do  all  the  work  that  must  be  done. 
Moreover,  the  work  in  the  country  communities 
differs  from  that  in  the  cities.  The  problems  of 
the  country  churches  would  be  solved,  some  of 
them  at  least,  if  the  missionary  spirit  of  evangel- 
ization were  to  lay  hold  upon  the  good  women  in 
them,  and  send  them  forth  upon  the  errands  of 
love  and  helpfulness.  There  are  foreigners  al- 
most everywhere ;  and  some  of  our  local  churches 
have  become  aware  of  their  presence  in  the  vil- 
lages and  rural  communities,  and  have  made  laud- 
able efforts  to  reach  them  with  the  gospel.  But 
there  are  multitudes  of  churches  that  do  not  seem 
to  be  aware  as  yet  of  a  missionary  opportunity. 
To  be  a  missionary  is  the  surest  way  to  do  your 
part  to  awaken  your  church  to  its  duty  and  to 
quicken  its  spiritual  life. 

When  a  band  of  consecrated  women  unite  in 
any  church  to  form  a  missionary  committee  that 
shall  not  only  plan  meetings  and  prepare  pro- 


120     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

grams  for  them  and  disseminate  missionary  in- 
formation, but  shall  also  engage  in  systematic 
personal  missionary  service,  that  church  will  be 
accounted  among  the  living  churches  of  the  living 
God,  and  there  will  be  no  chasm  between  it  and 
the  working  classes.  Our  Christian  women  must 
see  to  it  that  the  Christian  church  is  kept  free 
from  all  clannishness  and  cliques  and  social  dis- 
tinctions and  race  prejudices ;  that  it  retain  its 
unique  character  as  the  one  place  on  earth  where 
false  human  distinctions  are  unrecognized,  and 
where  only  the  spirit  of  Christ — the  spirit  of 
brotherhood  and  mutual  helpfulness  and  sympathy 
— obtains.  It  might  be  a  good  test  question : 
"Would  my  church  welcome  a  company  of  Ital- 
ians, if  they  came?"  More  pressing  question 
still,  "Am  I  quite  sure  that  I  would  welcome 
them,  and  open  my  pew  to  some  of  them?"  It 
takes  grace  to  be  a  missionary  and  do  missionary 
work  in  person — it  is  so  much  easier  to  do  it  by 
proxy.  And  yet  there  are  multitudes  of  devoted 
women  who  will  engage  in  this  home  mission 
task  just  as  soon  as  they  see  the  opportunity  and 
feel  its  obligation. 

4.    TRAINING  SCHOOLS  FOR  WORKERS 

There  are,  then,  two  broad  divisions  of  the 
work  of  evangelizing  the  foreigners  in  our  coun- 
try. The  first  is  that  in  which  the  gospel  is  to 
be  brought  to  the  newcomers  in  their  own  tongue. 


WOMAN'S   WORK  121 

This  must  be  done,  and  done  on  an  increasingly 
large  scale.  Thousands  of  the  older  immigrants 
will  never  be  able  to  understand  English  suffi- 
ciently to  attend  services  conducted  in  our  lan- 
guage, even  if  we  could  induce  them  to  do  so. 
They  can  only  be  reached  in  their  own  language. 
For  this  there  must  be  trained  missionaries,  and 
as  far  as  possible  of  their  own  race.  A  Polish 
community  can  be  reached  by  a  Polish  missionary 
where  an  American  missionary  who  spoke  the 
Polish  language  would  find  it  impossible  to  gather 
a  congregation.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  the 
various  other  peoples.  A  converted  Italian  or 
Jew  or  Bohemian  represents  to  his  race  some- 
thing distinct  from  an  American  Christian.  The 
Slovak  understands  the  Slovak,  and  knows  how 
to  approach  and  influence  him.  The  bonds  of 
race  are  strong.  This  point  does  not  need  to  be 
argued.  The  need  is  to  secure  the  missionaries 
and  support  them.  The  number  we  have  now  is 
but  as  a  drop  in  the  bucket  in  proportion  to  the 
need  and  the  opportunity. 

Two  things  the  Christian  women  can  do  in  this 
matter.  First,  they  can  help  stimulate  the  in- 
crease of  benevolence  in  the  churches,  so  that  the 
home  mission  societies  may  have  funds  to  estab- 
lish the  necessary  training  schools  and  put  mis- 
sionary preachers  and  pastors  in  the  field.  This 
interest  in  the  work  of  the  missionary  boards  our 
Christian  women  should  not  fail  to  take.  It  would 
be  fatal  to  the  missionary  spirit  of  the  women 


122     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

themselves  if  they  were  to  regard  the  genera) 
missionary  boards  as  belonging  to  the  men  of  the 
churches,  and  confine  their  efforts  to  the  specific 
work  of  the  women's  societies.  The  ideal  rela- 
tion is  that  where  the  whole  work  has  place  in  the 
thought,  prayers,  and  giving,  and  the  specific 
work  is  always  regarded  as  a  part  of  the  whole. 
There  could  be  no  greater  evil  than  to  have  sex 
lines  create  division  in  Christian  service.  In  this 
missionary  work  there  is  no  Jew  nor  Greek,  bond 
nor  free,  male  nor  female,  but  one  purpose  in 
Christ  Jesus. 

Second,  the  women  can  enlarge  a  special  work, 
through  their  boards,  in  training  and  maintain- 
ing women  missionaries  and  teachers,  trained 
nurses,  Bible  readers,  house  to  house  visitors. 
The  possibilities  of  this  ministry  of  blessing  are 
bounded  only  by  the  numbers  which  the  resources 
can  put  in  the  field.  Already  there  are  schools 
in  which  these  needed  workers  are  educated.  The 
Baptist  women  have  their  Training  School  in 
Chicago,  which  has  sent  many  scores  of  devoted 
workers  into  the  field,  at  home  and  abroad.  The 
Congregationalists  have  the  Bethlehem  Bible  and 
Missionary  Training  School  in  Cleveland,  the 
outgrowth  of  Dr.  Schauffler's  remarkable  service, 
and  the  students  are  a  convincing  proof  of  the 
efficiency  of  this  form  of  evangelization.  The 
Presbyterian  women  carry  on  a  training  work  in 
a  number  of  the  Presbyteries,  and  there  is  a  school 
in  Philadelphia  that  will  probably  come  under  the 


WOMAN'S   WORK  123 

care  of  the  Woman's  Home  Board.  The  work 
among  foreigners  done  by  the  Methodist  women 
is  largely  through  their  deaconesses.  For  the 
training  of  these  and  of  missionaries  three  large 
schools  have  been  established — in  Washington 
(D.  C),  Kansas  City,  and  San  Francisco — and 
smaller  schools  are  connected  with  several  of  the 
Deaconess  Homes.  The  work  of  the  Episcopa- 
lian women  is  also  done  through  deaconesses,  con- 
nected with  the  local  parishes.  There  is  a  good 
deal  of  training  work  done  in  connection  with 
local  churches  and  city  missions,  and  there  is  a 
general  awakening  of  interest  that  is  most  en- 
couraging. 

There  is  no  form  of  service  that  can  take  the 
place  of  this.  Beginning  with  the  blessed  and 
effective  ministry  at  Ellis  Island,  which  reaches 
in  its  influence  throughout  the  land,  the  immi- 
grants must  be  followed  and  surrounded  with 
the  same  sympathetic  Christian  influence  of  the 
women  missionaries.  No  other  organized  agency 
touches  the  home  in  the  same  direct  and  elevating 
way.  The  true-hearted  Christian  woman,  giving 
her  life  to  this  work  of  carrying  the  gospel  of 
Christ  into  the  homes  of  the  aliens,  becomes  in 
their  eyes  a  ministering  angel,  and  exercises  an 
influence  immeasurable  upon  the  lives  of  the 
women  and  children,  and  through  them  reaches 
also  the  men.  No  missionary  service  demands 
more  heroism  and  self-sacrifice  than  this.  None 
has  richer  rewards. 


124     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

Examples  of  this  home  ministry  and  its  results 
are  given  in  Appendix  VL 

5.     PERSONAL  SERVICE 

The  second  broad  division  is  that  of  personal 
service.  This,  after  all,  is  the  heart  of  the  matter. 
Our  justification  for  returning  to  this  point,  and 
closing  with  it,  must  be  the  conviction  that  the 
truth  has  yet  to  be  realized  that  individual  eflFort 
is  as  possible  and  practicable  as  organized  effort, 
and  that  it  is  as  essential.  America  will  never 
be  evangelized  until  every  Christian  in  America 
is  in  a  real  and  true  sense  an  evangelist  and  a 
home  missionary.  When  Christians  begin  to 
bring  themselves  into  right  personal  relations 
with  the  foreigners,  the  foreigners  will  begin  the 
process  of  Americanization  forthwith. 

But  we  do  not  wish  to  appear  unreasonable  in 
this  matter.  Generalizations  seldom  hit  the  in- 
dividual. To  say  that  every  woman  is  in  Chris- 
tian duty  bound  to  bring  herself  into  immediate 
sisterly  contact  with  some  foreign  woman  or 
family  is  to  make  so  broad  a  statement  that  the 
average  woman  will  simply  sweep  it  aside  as 
absurd  and  not  related  to  her  at  all.  This  is  what 
we  do  say,  that  every  Christian  woman  who  loves 
her  country  and  her  home,  her  church  and  her 
Saviour,  should  ask  herself  what  her  circle  of  con- 
tact is ;  whether  there  are  any  foreign  women  and 
children  in  it ;  and  whether,  if  so,  she  has  any 
Christian  duty  in  relation  to  them.     Surely  that  is 


\ 

1 

*"^*. 

H 

1 

«> 

liii^ 

"^#5^          0,   .]^ 

gt'* 

r 

Hi 

i-*^ 

•1 

sj|*^^3 

Um 

1 

via* 

^    "^k 

^ 

JJi 

IWK^^K^ 

«»•  ^k-<* 

«■  .    '  ^^ 

_^ 

tu 

*.x 

111  *'J3l^f 

^  '<y 

■  ■  ■  vBH 

WL^-^  <!j 

'^,^<^ 

S  - 

§  1 1 1 M  f 

"  w^'*    *  iftff  .  jrij 

'^v^  H 

K^-ijBi 

^^i^.'^W*^ 

.  •  ^1 

feap 

^%  *       -1 

^^m^ 

•  ^Bf  ^ 

-T«i.«'5 

f*pm 

Kl^       :            f 

•<< 

-^ 

^  ^ 

r 

M 

-■          —    ' 

r. 

J-jj 

^^ 

i^-ia^ 

WOMAN'S   WORK  125 

not  demanding  too  much.  Yet  we  believe  that  if 
this  much  were  done,  and  conscientiously  done, 
it  would  mean  a  new  era  of  evangelization,  a  new 
day  for  our  churches  and  our  country. 

With  the  question  of  individual  obligation  faced 
and  settled,  a  host  of  Christian  women  all  over  the 
land  would  become  engaged  in  a  personal  min- 
istry new  to  them,  but  sure  to  enlarge  and  enrich 
their  own  experience  as  well  as  to  bring  new 
vision,  hope,  and  life  to  a  multitude  of  foreign 
women  and  children.  The  home  mission  work, 
in  which  is  largely  involved  the  future  of 
America,  can  never  be  done  until  this  individual 
missionary  service  is  rendered  by  all  who  are 
capable  and  in  circumstances  to  do  it.  Nor  do  we 
intend  to  make  too  much  of  it.  We  do  not  for  a 
moment  imagine  that  the  women  of  our  churches 
should  set  out  on  a  crusade  of  visitation,  as  if  a 
religious  census  were  to  be  taken.  The  work 
must  be  natural.  Anything  like  a  concerted 
movement  would  frighten  the  foreigners  and  de- 
feat the  object  in  view. 

What  we  have  in  mind,  rather,  is  the  same 
treatment  of  the  foreign  family  as  would  be  given 
to  an  American  family  that  should  come  into  our 
neighborhood.  First  is  a  neighborly  attitude, 
then  a  neighborly  approach.  The  call  must  be 
that  of  a  neighbor,  not  that  of  a  committee. 
There  must  be  no  spirit  of  patronage  or  inquisi- 
tiveness  in  it,  but  that  of  womanly  sympathy  and 
desire  to  be  helpful.     If  it  be  said  that  this  is 


126     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

purely  secular,  the  reply  is  that  this  sort  of  secular 
approach  is  the  straight  road  to  religious  influ- 
ence and  result.  Any  other  approach  is  barred 
by  religious  prejudice  and  race  suspicion.  When 
a  Protestant  talks  religion  to  a  Roman  Catholic, 
as  a  matter  of  duty  and  without  previously  estab- 
lished relations  of  confidence,  the  outcome  is 
almost  certain  to  be  worse  than  futile.  When  a 
womanly  woman  becomes  acquainted  with  the 
cares  and  needs  of  a  sister  woman  whose  lot  is 
different  from  her  own,  the  religious  element 
enters  into  that  relationship  naturally  and  inevi- 
tably. It  is  this  kind  of  service,  which  is  as  genu- 
inely missionary  and  blessed  as  that  of  colporteur 
or  employed  missionary,  that  we  commend  to  the 
thoughtful  consideration  of  the  great  host  of 
noble  women  in  the  churches.  They  have  a 
mighty  reservoir  of  hitherto  unused  power  to 
draw  upon  for  the  Americanization  of  the  immi- 
grants. How  could  Christian  culture  more  nobly 
employ  itself  than  in  this  outgiving  for  others? 
As  for  the  women  so  situated  that  personal  ser- 
vice is  not  possible,  according  to  their  means  it  is 
their  part  and  privilege  to  serve  by  proxy  through 
the  workers  of  the  boards.  All  can  be  interested  in 
this  great  work;  not  all  can  successfully  engage 
in  personal  effort.  All  can  do  something,  but  not 
all  the  same  thing.  What  we  want  to  secure  is  a 
cooperation  that  shall  bring  the  Christian  women 
of  America  into  a  vital  relationship  to  this  para- 
mount task  of  Americanization,  the  ultimate  pur- 


WOMAN'S   WORK  127 

pose  of  which  will  be  attained  only  when  the  aliens 
are  no  longer  aliens  to  the  household  of  faith,  but 
have  been  made  one  in  the  great  Christian  family. 

In  a  class  of  intelligent  men  and  women  en- 
gaged in  the  study  of  this  problem  of  immigration 
and  assimilation,  the  teacher  asked  all  of  the  class 
who  lived  in  communities  where  the  foreigners 
were  present  in  considerable  numbers  to  raise 
their  hands.  Nearly  every  hand  went  up.  "Now 
let  those  of  the  class  who  have  taken  pains  to  learn 
how  many  of  these  foreigners  there  are,  what 
races  they  represent,  and  what  are  their  condi- 
tions and  needs  religiously,  raise  their  hands." 
Out  of  the  seventy  persons  present,  only  three 
responded  to  that  inquiry.  "The  moral  is  ob- 
vious," said  the  teacher  quietly;  and  there  was 
profound  stillness  in  the  room.  "I  have  only  to 
ask  you  if  this  result  of  our  inquiry  does  not  sug- 
gest either  a  lack  of  vision  or  a  neglected  duty." 
And  the  matter  was  left  there,  for  the  time.  It 
was  not  to  be  left  there  always,  however,  for  many 
in  that  class,  recognizing  the  divine  opportunity 
brought  home  to  them,  resolved  that  they  would 
go  home,  study  their  foreign  colonies,  and  see 
how  they  could  get  into  touch  with  them  for  good. 

Put  the  same  inquiry  in  your  missionary  meet- 
ing or  society,  and  let  the  awakening  come.  It 
will  be  a  blessed  day  for  America  when  a  multi- 
tude of  good  women  come  to  realize  with  impel- 
ling force  that  the  missionary  meeting  that  needs 
most  to  be  held  is  that  of  a  devoted  Christian 


128     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

woman  of  refinement  and  culture  with  her  needy 
and  homesick  and  isolated  sister  from  a  far-away 
land,  who  lacks  nothing  so  much  as  a  bit  of 
womanly  sympathy  and  cheer. 

Once  entered  upon,  this  work  will  fascinate  and 
hold  the  worker,  and  its  reward  will  be  such 
happiness  as  no  other  form  of  service  yields.  To 
lead  an  ignorant  person  into  knowledge  that  is 
good  and  helpful ;  to  sweeten  the  life  of  little  chil- 
dren, to  bring  a  soul  from  the  darkness  of  super- 
stition and  fear  into  the  light  of  rejoicing  faith 
and  love,  to  be  the  means  in  God's  providence  of 
making  a  loyal,  docile,  clean-minded,  pure- 
hearted.  Christian  American  out  of  a  once  uncul- 
tured and  unbefriended  alien  immigrant — that  is 
work  which  appeals  to  the  highest  and  holiest  in 
the  human  heart. 

Christian  women  of  America,  upon  whose  faith 
and  fidelity  the  future  of  this  great  nation  so 
largely  depends,  you  have  a  vast  responsibility. 
The  perils  of  immigration  are  not  fancied  but 
real.  They  may  be  averted,  and  they  will  be,  if 
you  once  get  clear  vision  of  the  great  but  inspir- 
ing work  which  God  has  given  you  to  do.  The 
incoming  millions  are  so  many  evangelistic  oppor- 
tunities. May  this  volume  help  you  to  recognize 
these  opportunities  as  your  own,  and  see  in  every 
opportunity  both  a  divine  obligation  and  a  price- 
less privilege. 


VI 
THE  AMERICA  OF  TO-MORROW 

I.    THE  SOCIAL  UPLIFT 

THE  United  States  is  to-day  a  huge  school. 
There  are  scholars  in  plenty,  and  every 
steamer  from  Europe  brings  an  added 
hundred  or  thousand.  The  force  of  teachers  is 
not  large,  but  it  is  active  and  devoted  and  steadily 
growing.  The  subjects  taught  are  few  and  sim- 
ple: only  the  dullest  or  most  warped  can  fail  to 
understand  or  appreciate  them.  The  scholars  are 
asked  to  learn  that  America  stands  for  political 
and  religious  freedom ;  for  the  spirit  of  equality ; 
for  the  economic  well-being  of  its  citizens.  They 
are  taught  that  an  American  should  have  a  love 
of  law  and  order,  should  respect  woman  and  care 
for  children,  should  treat  his  fellows  in  a  kindly 
and  humane  spirit.  When  they  have  learned 
these  things  they  take  their  places  in  the  ranks  of 
American  manhood  and  womanhood. 

All  about  us  are  pupils  in  every  stage  of  de- 
velopment. Recently  a  kindergarten  teacher 
removed  a  child's  frock  in  order  to  try  on  a  new 
garment.  She  found  the  child  was  completely  en- 
cased in  woollen  rags  sewed  securely  around  its 
129 


130     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

body.  When  the  teacher  applied  the  scissors  to 
some  of  the  stitches  the  child  screamed :  "Oh, 
don't  do  that,  my  mamma's  got  me  sewed  up  for 
all  winter !" 

A  Polish  miner  attempted  to  take  out  natural- 
ization papers.  "Who  is  President  of  the  United 
States?"  asked  the  judge.  "John  Mitchell,"  re- 
plfed  the  miner.  "Where  are  the  laws  made?" 
was  the  next  question.  "In  Pottsville,"  was  the 
answer. 

A  Russian  Jew  begged  a  Legal  Aid  Society  to 
protect  him  against  his  wife.  He  said  that  when 
he  came  to  this  country  he  left  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren in  Russia.  After  a  year  or  two  he  met  a 
girl  that  he  liked  better,  so  he  went  to  the  rabbi 
and  got  a  divorce  with  a  new  marriage  thrown  in 
for  five  dollars.  He  had  just  heard  that  his  first 
wife  was  on  her  way  to  America,  and  he  im- 
plored the  Society  to  give  him  its  protection. 

These  are  beginners, — very  crude  beginners, 
we  may  well  think.  But  they  will  learn  better  in 
time.  The  weekly  bath  at  the  public  school  will 
teach  the  mother  of  the  child  that  under  the  cir- 
cumstances it  is  better  not  to  "sew  up"  her  chil- 
dren for  the  winter.  The  Polish  miner  will  have 
to  learn  the  difference  between  the  president  of  a 
labor  union  and  the  President  of  the  United  States 
before  he  can  become  naturalized.  The  Russian 
Jew  has  already  learned  that  his  care-free  marital 
proceedings  may  be  good  enough  for  Jews  in  Rus- 
sia but  that  they  are  not  up  to  the  standard  set 


AMERICA    OF    TO-MORROW  131 

for  Jews  in  America ;  and  the  Legal  Aid  Society 
has  instructed  the  rabbi  as  to  the  evil  and  illegality 
of  his  "graft." 

With  the  children  the  change  is  swift  and  ap- 
parently spontaneous.  The  little  boy  of  foreign 
birth  with  broken  speech  tells  the  visitor  that  the 
portrait  of  the  Father  of  his  Country  which  hangs 
on  the  schoolroom  wall  is  a  picture  of  Buffalo 
Bill.  A  few  years  later  he  will  be  celebrating 
Washington's  birthday  with  his  comrades.  In 
mimic  scene  they  will  reproduce  the  last  sessions 
of  the  Continental  Congress,  statesman  after 
statesman  answering  as  his  name  is  called.  The 
gentleman  from  Virginia  will  deliver  his  great 
utterances ;  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  will 
protest  in  vain ;  and  at  last  all  will  agree  to  hang 
together  or  hang  separately,  and  will  sign  their 
names  to  an  imaginary  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence while  the  school  cheers  them  to  the  echo  and 
joins  with  them  in  singing  fervently  and  unques- 
tioningly,  "Land  where  our  fathers  died." 

The  children  absorb  the  American  point  of 
view  with  astonishing  rapidity  when  they  are 
given  a  fair  chance.  So  far  as  possible,  it  is  the 
deliberate  choice  of  both  boys  and  girls  to  ignore 
their  foreign  origin.  In  numberless  instances 
this  is  shown  by  their  change  of  names  (without 
advice  of  parents  or  consent  of  law).  Chevan 
Panhasky  becomes  Celia  Smith,  Franciszek  Szym- 
kewich  blossoms  out  as  Frank  Brown.  Nor  is 
it  to  be  wondered  at  that  children  who  are  des- 


132     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

tined  to  live  in  an  English-speaking  country 
should  desire  to  get  rid  of  such  patronymics  as 
Sztachanes,  Skrzycki,  Aghakhon,  Bevilaqua, 
Dzingielieski,  Schlieglgruber,  Wojciechosky,  Ros- 
kinitopoulos,  and  others  equally  euphonious. 
Their  games  and  songs  are  of  the  new  land. 
Even  the  Russian  boys  prefer  to  discuss  "craps" 
in  English  rather  than  to  play  some  European 
game  in  their  inherited  Slavic  tongue.  The  folk- 
songs of  the  Slav  and  the  gay  ditties  of  the  Italian 
give  way  to  the  popular  airs  of  the  street  and  the 
patriotic  hymns  of  the  public  school. 

It  often  happens  that  these  changes  are  very 
disturbing  to  the  parents.  "Tomasso,"  says  an 
Italian  mother  in  very  forcible  Tuscan,  "you  stop 
speaking  English  or  I'll  kill  you.  What  would 
your  grandmother  say  if  she  knew  you  were  talk- 
ing this  pig's  language  ?"  Tomasso  replies  in  his 
English  of  the  street,  "Aw,  gwan,  I'm  'n  Ameri- 
can, see?  I  don't  talk  no  Dago,  so  go  'way  back 
'n  sit  down." 

Often,  on  the  other  hand,  the  children  are  en- 
couraged. Pietro  sits  in  the  crowded  kitchen 
laboring  away  at  his  writing  lesson.  "I  learn  t' 
make  an  Englis'  letter,"  he  informs  the  visitor. 
His  father  sits  near  by  watching  the  process. 
His  pride  in  the  achievement  is  proportionate  to 
the  struggle  it  costs,  and  he  mirrors  in  his  own 
face  every  contortion  and  grimace  the  progress  of 
education  causes  the  boy.  "Si,  si !"  he  exclaims 
eagerly,  "Pietro  he  good  a  boy ;  make  Englis', 


AMERICA   OF   TO-MORROW   1-53 

Englis'!"  and  he  makes  a  flourish  with  his  clay 
pipe  as  though  he,  too,  were  making  the  EngHsh 
letter  which  is  the  mysterious  object  of  their  com- 
mon veneration. 

Where  parents  are  in  sympathy  with  their  chil- 
dren, the  girls  and  boys  in  their  home  hours  are 
real  missionaries  of  cleanliness  and  progress. 
"Every  lesson  of  cleanliness,  of  order,  and  of 
English  taught  at  the  school,"  writes  Jacob  Riis, 
"is  reflected  into  some  wretched  home,  and  re- 
hearsed there  as  far  as  the  limited  opportunities 
will  allow.  No  demonstration  of  soap  and  water 
upon  a  dirty  little  face  but  widens  the  sphere  of 
these  chief  promoters  of  education  in  the  slums." 

Thus  the  public  school  is  a  powerful  agent  in 
promoting  the  welfare  and  assimilation  of  the  im- 
migrant. We  are  coming  to  realize  this  more  and 
more,  and  to  understand  that  our  schools  should 
give  the  immigrant's  children  something  more 
than  a  knowledge  of  syntax,  trade  winds,  and  the 
multiplication  table.  The  basements  of  some  of 
our  schools  have  been  fitted  with  shower-baths, 
and  the  children  are  required  to  learn  their  use. 
Manual  training  is  being  introduced  more  and 
more, — modelling,  carpentering,  printing,  and 
leather  work  for  the  boys;  sewing  and  cooking 
for  the  girls.  In  Boston  "the  industrial  training 
given  in  the  grammar  school  is  received  with  in- 
telligent appreciation  by  the  boys  and  girls  of  the 
three  upper  grades,"  writes  Miss  Caroline  S. 
Atherton.     "With  the  girls,  cooking  is  the  more 


134     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

popular  occupation,  and  they  regret  so  keenly 
being  obliged  to  give  it  up  upon  entering  the  mas- 
ter's room  that  a  special  arrangement  has  been 
made  in  the  Hancock  School  by  which  the  pupils 
of  the  ninth  grade  are  given  an  opportunity  sev- 
eral times  during  the  year  to  prepare  and  serve  a 
dinner  for  the  teachers.  The  work  that  goes  on 
in  the  charming  upstairs  kitchen  of  the  Hancock 
School  really  should  be  dignified  by  the  name 
Domestic  Science.  It  is  the  ways  of  healthful, 
happy  homes  that  the  girls  catch  a  glimpse  of  dur- 
ing the  two  hours  a  week  that  for  two  years  of 
their  school  life  they  spend  in  the  kitchen."  A 
woman  who  for  years  has  come  into  close  rela- 
tions with  immigrant  girls  is  convinced  that  more 
than  a  knowledge  of  academic  facts  these  girls 
need  correct  ideas  of  life  and  freedom  from  super- 
stition. Everything  that  tends  toward  these  ends 
must  add  to  their  future  happiness  and  usefulness. 
One  of  the  most  encouraging  features  of  the 
work  of  the  public  schools  is  the  intelligent  appre- 
ciation which  children  from  homes  of  ignorance 
show  for  this  American  opportunity.  What 
school  life  means  to  some  of  these  children  may 
be  read  in  the  autobiographies  that  the  graduat- 
ing classes  of  some  schools  are  asked  to  write. 
"Refugees  from  Russian  persecution  tell  in  elo- 
quent, well-chosen  words,  personal  experiences 
holding  all  the  elements  of  tragic  drama,  and  they 
picture  vividly  the  contrast  between  the  condi- 
tions of  their  European  homes  and  the  school 


AMERICA    OF    TO-MORROW   135 

privileges  of  America.  The  appreciation  and  the 
frequent  Hterary  merits  of  these  records  are 
among  the  things  that  place  the  foreign  poor  and 
their  possibilities  in  an  entirely  new  light,  and 
arouse  the  devotion  and  enthusiasm  of  those  who 
come  in  contact  with  them." 

Nor  are  the  older  immigrants  always  blind  to 
the  chances  for  education  which  are  open  to  them. 
Evening  classes  for  instruction  in  English  have 
been  started  in  some  of  the  schools,  and  they  are 
well  attended.  One  such  class  has  an  attendance 
of  six  hundred  men  all  over  eighteen  years  of  age. 
It  requires  some  determination  to  face  the  dis- 
comforts of  this  evening  school  instruction.  The 
session  begins  at  7.30,  and  most  of  the  men  come 
directly  from  work,  thus  going  without  their  sup- 
pers until  half-past  nine.  Gray-headed  or  middle- 
aged  though  they  may  be,  they  are  forced  to 
squeeze  between  desks  and  seats  which  were 
planned  for  children. 

2.    THE  SIGNS  OF  PROGRESS 

As  the  immigrant  progresses  he  comes  to  desire 
citizenship — sometimes,  unfortunately,  in  order 
that  he  may  sell  his  vote  to  the  Republicans  or  the 
Democrats.  The  men  at  one  of  the  labor-camp 
schools  conducted  by  the  Society  for  Italian  Im- 
migrants became  greatly  interested  in  the  matter 
of  naturalization.  Some  of  the  reasons  they  gave 
for  desiring  naturalization  were :  "Because  I  mean 
to  live  here;"  "1  want  to  take  part  in  public 


136     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

affairs ;"  "I  want  to  make  friends  of  good  men ;" 
"I  will  not  live  in  this  country  like  stranger,  but 
I  want  stay  here  just  the  same  of  American  peo- 
ple ;"  "I  want  honor  the  laws  because  I  love  it." 
Among  their  conceptions  of  the  duty  of  citizen- 
ship were  these :  "To  love  the  people  like  them- 
selves and  never  oppress  them ;"  "To  do  noth- 
ing to  dishonor  the  good  name  of  the  United 
States."  The  articles  of  faith  expressed  by 
one  man  were :  "To  learn  the  American  Con- 
stitution thoroughly  and  abide  by  it.  To  vote 
at  all  elections,  both  local  and  national,  provided 
you  comply  with  all  the  election  laws  in  which- 
ever State  you  may  reside.  To  read  the  different 
newspapers  which  contain  both  the  local  and  for- 
eign news  concerning  the  good  and  welfare  of 
the  United  States  so  as  to  be  able  to  converse 
with  all  persons  whom  you  may  come  in  contact 
with  regarding  any  important  questions  which 
may  arise  in  time  of  peace  or  war  in  which  the 
United  States  should  be  involved  in." 

It  is  inspiring  to  see  the  progress  which  some 
of  our  new  citizens  are  making.  The  Bohemians 
in  the  West  are  a  good  example.  Where  they 
have  settled  in  the  country  their  assimilation  is 
sure  and  steady.  Even  in  the  great  Chicago 
colony,  which  is  the  third  largest  Bohemian  city 
in  the  world,  the  American  leaven  is  working. 
This  colony  received  a  splendid  start,  for  it  was 
founded  by  liberty-loving  young  men  who  fled 
from  Bohemia  after  the  revolution  of  1848.     Its 


AMERICA   OF    TO-MORROW  13V 

patriotism  is  assured.  In  i860  a  Lincoln  Rifle 
Company  was  formed  by  the  Bohemians  and  this 
was  the  first  organization  which  left  Chicago  to 
fight  for  the  Union.  To-day  the  best  monument 
in  the  Bohemian  cemetery  tells  of  the  patriotism 
of  these  early  immigrants,  and  year  after  year 
their  fellow-countrymen  gather  about  this  monu- 
ment and  honor  the  memory  of  their  fallen 
brethren. 

Miss  Josefa  Humpal  Zeman  describes  how 
many  of  them  have  struggled  upward  from  small 
beginnings :  "Often  good  artisans  were  compelled 
to  work  for  low  wages,  even  $1.25  a  day;  still, 
out  of  this  meagre  remuneration  they  managed  to 
lay  a  little  aside  for  that  longed-for  possession, — 
a  house  and  lot  that  they  could  call  their  own. 
When  that  was  paid  for,  then  the  house  received 
an  additional  story,  and  that  was  rented,  so  that 
it  began  earning  money.  When  more  was  saved, 
the  house  was  pushed  to  the  rear,  the  garden  sac- 
rificed, and  in  its  place  an  imposing  brick  or 
stone  building  was  erected,  containing  frequently 
a  store,  or  more  room  for  tenants.  The  landlord, 
who  till  then  lived  in  some  unpleasant  rear  rooms, 
moved  into  the  best  part  of  the  house ;  the  bare 
but  well-scrubbed  floors  were  covered  with  Brus- 
sels carpets,  the  wooden  chairs  replaced  by  up- 
holstered ones,  and  the  best  room  received  the 
added  luxury  of  a  piano  or  violin."  Nor  has  all 
their  progress  been  material.  To-day  they  are 
publishing  excellent  newspapers  which  compare 


138     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

favorably  with  our  own,  are  taking  an  active  part 
in  politics,  have  ambitious  dramatic  clubs  which 
present  Shakespearian  dramas,  have  numerous 
social  and  benevolent  organizations,  and  flourish- 
ing Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant  churches. 

There  is  one  unpleasant  side  to  this  otherwise, 
pleasant  picture  of  Bohemian  development,  and 
that  is  the  rapid  increase  of  atheism  among  them. 
Atheist  societies  have  been  formed,  several  news- 
papers are  printed  largely  to  spread  broadcast 
atheistic  doctrines,  and  there  are  three  hundred 
so-called  Sunday  schools  where  the  children  are 
taught  that  there  is  no  God  and  that  religion  is  a 
snare  and  a  delusion.  This  tendency  to  atheism 
probably  originates  in  the  hatred  which  large 
numbers  of  the  Bohemians  bear  toward  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  Church,  having  for  many  years 
coupled  that  church  with  the  Austrian  house  of 
Hapsburg  as  the  destroyer  of  their  liberties. 

Mr.  Nan  Mashek,  a  Bohemian,  says  on  this 
point:  "There  is  one  other  influence  (in  addi- 
tion to  that  of  the  public  school)  which,  if  brought 
to  bear,  especially  in  the  large  communities,  would 
be  helpful.  /  refer  to  the  Protestant  faith."  He 
goes  on  to  speak  of  the  non-religious  tendency 
among  his  people  in  America,  resulting  in  active 
unbelief,  and  says,  "this  spiritual  isolation  is  doing 
great  harm  in  retarding  assimilation."  Thus  a 
Bohemian  points  out  to  us  our  Christian  oppor- 
tunity in  regard  to  this  people  of  inherited  Protes- 
tant tendencies.     If  our  Christian  women  seize 


AMERICA    OF   TO-MORROW  139 

the  opportunity,  they  will  find  large  numbers 
ready  to  receive  the  gospel  and  rejoice  in  it  as 
did  the  old  Bohemian  woman  with  silvery  hair 
smoothly  parted,  who  said  to  the  missionary  sim- 
ply, "I  have  my  God  in  my  heart,  I  shall  deal  with 
him.  I  do  not  want  any  priest  to  step  between 
us." 

3.    THE  FRUIT  OF  RIGHT  ENVIRONMENT 

In  writing  of  his  Italian  countrymen  in 
America  Mr.  Mastro-Valerio  says:  "In  America 
the  Italians  might  be  very  good  farmers,  vine- 
growers,  gardeners,  olive  and  fruit  growers,  and 
stock-farmers,  just  as  they  were  in  Italy,  in  their 
own  home,  which  comprised  a  field  for  grain  and 
a  vineyard,  a  fruit  orchard,  and  a  little  stock- 
yard. But  the  Italian  immigrants,  unfortunately, 
do  not  continue  the  work  to  which  they  were  used 
in  Italy.  They  do  not  apply  themselves  to  till- 
ing the  soil,  in  which  they  would  not  only  prove 
skilful  laborers,  but  examples  to  other  nationali- 
ties. It  would  be  a  fortunate  movement,  that  of 
inducing  the  Italian  immigrants  to  leave  Ameri- 
can towns  for  farming  pieces  of  land  in  a  climate 
congenial  to  them.  In  my  opinion  the  only  means 
for  the  regeneration  of  the  Italian  immigrants 
from  the  state  in  which  they  nowadays  find  them- 
selves in  the  crowded  districts  of  the  American 
cities,  is  to  send  them  to  farming.  All  other 
means  are  mere  palliatives.  Then  they  will  begin 
to  belong  to  the  same  class  of  citizens  to  which 


140     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

they  did  at  home,  the  first  producers ;  that  class 
which  is  the  backbone  of  the  country,  and  most 
worthy  of  respect." 

Fortunately  the  soundness  of  this  view  is  com- 
ing to  be  recognized  more  and  more  by  Italians 
and  Americans  alike,  and  several  movements  are 
on  foot  to  aid  and  encourage  Italians  in  estab- 
lishing themselves  in  the  country.  California 
and  Louisiana  have  recognized  the  fitness  of  the 
Italian  farmer  and  are  encouraging  his  coming, 
as  are  other  States  both  South  and  West. 

Market-gardening  and  small  fruit-growing 
ofifer  the  readiest  and  easiest  opening  to  the  Ital- 
ians. Considerable  numbers  of  them  are  now 
successfully  at  work  on  Long  Island,  in  the  Dela- 
ware peach  belt,  in  the  suburbs  of  Washington, 
Baltimore,  New  Orleans,  Galveston,  and  many 
other  cities.  On  the  outskirts  of  Memphis,  Ten- 
nessee, there  is  a  large  colony  of  Italian  truck 
farmers  who  are  successfully  established  in  the 
pursuit  of  furnishing  Memphis  with  fruit  and 
vegetables.  There  are  approximately  three  thou- 
sand Italians  in  Tennessee,  reported  to  be  "almost 
all  farmers  who  are  doing  well." 

Independence,  Louisiana,  furnishes  an  excel- 
lent illustration  of  what  the  Italian  small-fruit 
growers  can  accomplish  in  the  South.  Fifteen 
years  ago  there  was  not  a  single  Italian  family 
in  Independence.  To-day  there  are  at  least  one 
hundred  and  sixty  thriving  Italian  families  in  the 
township,  and  "their  work  has  made  Independ- 


AMERICA    OF    TO-MORROW  Ul 

ence  the  'blue  ribbon'  strawberry  shipper  of 
Louisiana,  if  not  of  the  country  at  large."  In 
1904  the  berry  growers  of  Independence  shipped 
two  hundred  and  seventy-five  carloads  of  berries 
of  unsurpassed  quality,  representing  a  money 
return  of  $700,000.  "And  the  marvel  of  this 
shipment  is  the  greater  when  it  is  brought  to  mind 
that  this  grand  crop  came  from  the  ground  that 
twenty  years  ago  was  reckoned  to  be  the  poorest 
land  in  the  South,  practically  unsalable  at  any 
price.  This  was  one  of  the  sandy,  stump-filled 
tracts  from  which  the  pine  timber  had  been  cut — 
too  poor  to  grow  cotton,  corn,  or  cane,  and 
offered  for  years  at  the  nominal  rate  of  a  dollar 
an  acre." 

A  successful  colony  at  Daphne,  Alabama,  is 
described  by  Mr.  Eliot  Lord  :*  "The  foundation 
of  the  colony  at  Daphne  was  laid  by  Alessandro 
Mastro-Valerio  in  the  heart  of  an  invigorating 
pine  forest;  a  settlement  of  twenty  Italian  fami- 
lies, on  land  bought  at  from  $1.50  to  $5  per  acre. 
The  allotment  for  each  family  was  from  twenty- 
five  to  fifty  acres.  The  growth  of  pines  was 
cleared  away  by  degrees,  and  the  colonists  used 
the  lumber  which  they  cut  from  their  own  trees 
to  build  their  houses.  The  vines  and  fruit  trees, 
expertly  laid  out  in  a  neatly  ordered  system  of 
rows  and  stakes,  have  thrived  remarkably,  and 
their  fruit  is  brought  to  an  unusually  early  matu- 
rity.    The  soil  of  Daphne  is  sandy,  and  has  the 

*  The  Italian  in  America,  p.  132. 


U2     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

advantage  of  being  easily  worked,  a  very  impor- 
tant feature  to  colonists  with  little  capital  and 
simple  tools  of  husbandry.  It  is  not  fertile,  and 
would  hardly  warrant  cultivation  without  the  use 
of  artificial  fertilizers,  but  this  was  foreseen  and 
the  needed  fertilization  was  determined  and  pro- 
vided. On  the  cleared  lands  wheat,  corn,  rice, 
tobacco,  cotton,  oats,  peanuts,  Irish  and  sweet 
potatoes  have  been  successfully  grown,  and  the 
whole  district  is  now  luxuriantly  productive, 
sometimes  yielding  two  crops  in  a  year." 

"One  of  the  most  notable  instances  of  the  feasi- 
bility of  establishing  this  Italian  immigrant  indus- 
try on  a  basis  entirely  satisfactory,"  continues  Mr. 
Lord,  "is  afforded  by  the  plantations  in  the  town- 
ship of  Canastota,  New  York.  Here  the  Italians 
were  first  attracted  by  the  offer  of  arable  land  to 
be  worked  on  the  share  system,  with  which  all 
natives  of  Central  Italy  are  familiar.  The  land 
was  divided  into  tracts,  each  assigned  to  a  sepa- 
rate family.  The  needed  seed  or  plants  or  tools 
for  cultivation  were  furnished  by  the  owners 
when  required.  A  plain,  small,  but  sufficient 
house  was  provided  for  each  family,  and  the 
requisite  credit  for  the  food  supply  for  the  sea- 
son's work  was  extended. 

"Each  cultivator  had,  as  a  rule,  from  five  to  six 
acres  to  care  for.  Here  he  produced  onions, 
beets,  spinach,  cabbage,  celery,  and  other  vege- 
tables for  which  the  demand  was  certain  and 
market  ready.     At  the  close  of  the  season  half  the 


AMERICA    OF    TO-MORROW  143 

product  was  credited  to  him  and  half  to  his  land- 
lord, deducting  advances  for  rent  from  the  labor- 
er's share  of  profits. 

"The  success  of  this  undertaking  was  so  marked 
from  the  start  that  its  extension  followed  as  a 
matter  of  course  without  any  artificial  urging. 
The  number  of  Italians  employed  on  these  planta- 
tions has  grown  to  over  five  hundred,  including 
the  women  and  children.  When  I  visited  this 
township  recently  the  permanence  of  this  settle- 
ment was  assured  beyond  question.  Most  of  the 
Italians  on  the  plantations  had  already  saved 
enough  to  buy  and  own  without  debt  their 
own  little  houses  and  farms,  and  some  had  con- 
siderably increased  the  size  of  their  original  hold- 
ings. All,  without  known  exception,  were  thriv- 
ing and  contented. 

"There  was  no  criminal  disposition  noted  and 
there  had  never  been  any  serious  trouble  in  the 
settlement.  The  parents  were  ambitious  for  their 
children,  and  the  children  compare  favorably  with 
any  other  American  children  of  the  same  age  and 
condition  in  life.  It  was  particularly  noted  that 
the  settlers  were  unusually  prompt  in  paying  their 
debts  and  meeting  any  obligations.  Not  one 
among  them,  it  was  said,  had  been  committed  to 
the  poorhouse,  or  become  a  vagrant,  or  called 
upon  anybody  for  charitable  relief." 

Colonization  has  also  been  tried  among  the 
Jews  with  some  measure  of  success,  though  the 
Jews  cannot  compare  with  the  Italians  as  agri- 


144     THE   INCOMING   MILLIONS 

culturists.  The  Woodbine  Colony  in  New  Jer- 
sey, established  by  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund, 
organized  to  meet  the  forced  immigration  into  this 
country  of  the  East  European  Jew — the  Russian, 
Galician,  and  Roumanian — has  proved  an  inter- 
esting experiment.  In  1891  Woodbine  repre- 
sented a  tract  of  5300  acres  of  waste  land,  covered 
with  scrub  oak,  stunted  pine,  intermixed  with 
white  and  black  oak.  Three  or  four  tumble-down 
structures  sheltered  a  population  of  a  dozen  rail- 
road employes.  In  ten  years,  thanks  to  the  aid  of 
the  Fund  and  the  industry,  frugality,  and  per- 
severance of  the  population,  Woodbine  had  be- 
come the  manufacturing,  agricultural,  and  edu- 
cational centre  of  Cape  May  County.  As  the  re- 
port made  by  the  superintendent  of  the  settlement 
says  :*  "The  maltreated,  downtrodden,  despised 
subject  of  the  Russian  tyrant,  the  haughty  nobility 
of  Galicia,  and  the  ruined  Boyars  of  Roumania, 
in  ten  years,  under  the  protective  wings  of  the 
American  eagle,  was  redeemed  for  humanity,  be- 
came a  producing,  useful  member  of  society,  and 
thankful,  devoted  son  of  the  country  which  has 
adopted  him."  This  shows  the  effect  of  settle- 
ment away  from  the  great  cities.  This  is  de- 
scribed as  a  model  community,  with  no  idlers,  no 
drunkards,  no  criminals.  The  Fund  does  not  dis- 
pense individual  charity,  while  very  liberal  in  pro- 
viding employment  and  education.     Every  cent 

*  New   Jersey  Review  of  Charities  and  Corrections, 
March,  1902. 


AMERICA    OF    TO-MORROW  145 

gotten  in  Woodbine  is  through  labor.  This  was 
and  is  the  fundamental  rule  of  management.  The 
Woodbine  philanthropy  is  demoralizing  neither 
the  giver  nor  receiver.  The  schools  include  trade 
and  technical  branches,  and  are  of  the  best.  This 
is  an  enlightened  use  of  wealth,  and  one  of  the 
ways  in  which  immigration  can  be  shorn  of  its 
possible  evils. 

4.    THE  AMERICAN  LEAVEN  WORKING 

Even  among  the  Slavs  in  the  Pennsylvania 
mines  there  are  distinct  signs  of  progress,  slow 
though  the  progress  be.  Says  Dr.  Warne :  "All  the 
Slav  children  do  not  attend  the  parochial  schools. 
Many  of  them  are  in  regular  attendance  at  the 
public  schools,  and  in  general  they  are  diligent 
and  painstaking  students.  Invariably  one  hears 
good  reports  of  them  from  teachers  and  superin- 
tendents— in  fact,  not  a  few  public  school  teach- 
ers report  the  Slav  children  to  be  more  proficient 
and  in  many  ways  more  progressive  in  their 
studies  than  children  of  the  English-speaking 
races.  Under  the  public  school  system  many  of 
the  Slav  children  are  being  trained  into  good 
American  citizens." 

The  Slavs  bring  with  them  to  this  country  much 
bitter  prejudice  against  dififerent  branches  of  their 
race.  Between  the  Lithuanian  and  the  Pole,  for 
example,  there  seems  to  exist  an  inveterate  hatred, 
and  the  Slovaks  and  the  Magyars  detest  one  an- 
other, the  latter  resenting  bitterly  their  classifica- 


146     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

tion  with  the  Slavs.  New  enmities  spring  up  on 
their  arrival  in  the  mining  regions,  and  the  Slavs, 
cordially  hated  by  the  English-speaking  peoples, 
learn  to  hate  them  in  return.  This  condition  is, 
of  course,  very  detrimental  to  real  progress.  The 
miners'  union  is,  however,  doing  much  to  break 
down  these  forces  of  separation  and  is  tending  to 
bind  together  the  various  groups  and  races.  The 
United  Mine  Workers  of  America  "is  taking  men 
of  a  score  of  nationalities,  men  of  widely  differ- 
ent creeds,  languages,  and  customs,  and  is  weld- 
ing them  into  an  industrial  brotherhood,  each  part 
of  which  can  at  least  understand  of  the  other  that 
they  are  working  for  one  great  and  common  end." 
This  welding  process  means  ultimate  assimila- 
tion and  Americanization  if  the  Christian  men  and 
women  of  the  land  are  alive  to  their  duty  and 
privilege  of  making  evangelization  the  crowning 
influence  in  this  social  uplift.  The  Slav  is  too 
apt  to  divorce  religion  and  morality.  Let  us  show 
him  by  example  and  teaching  that  the  two  are 
closely  united. 

Attempts  are  being  made  by  the  faithful  little 
bands  of  social  settlement  workers,  and  by  de- 
voted individuals,  to  brighten  the  social  life  of  the 
immigrants  and  raise  it  to  a  higher  plane.  This 
is  preeminently  woman's  work,  and  it  affords  the 
broadest  scope  for  the  exercise  of  woman's  tact- 
fulness,  love,  and  sympathy.  A  kind  act,  or  a 
show  of  sympathy  on  the  part  of  an  American 
woman,  finds  a  ready  response  in  the  heart  of  the 


AMERICA    OF   TO-MORROW  147 

immigrant  mother  or  daughter.  She  has  been 
transplanted  to  a  new  environment  and  most  of 
the  old  family  ties  and  village  associations  have 
been  broken.  She  feels  her  isolation,  and  the 
usual  scorn  or  indifference  of  the  average  Ameri- 
can woman  serves  to  accentuate  her  loneliness. 
Miss  Emily  Balch  gives  us  a  hint  of  the  homesick- 
ness of  the  Slav  woman,  even  under  very  favor- 
able circumstances : 

I  found  her  established,  without  boarders,  in  fairly- 
pleasant  and  quite  well-furnished  rooms.  She  was 
washing  in  a  clean  kitchen  where  the  little  girl,  sick 
with  scarlet  fever,  sat  in  a  rocking-chair  by  the  re- 
splendent stove  with  its  nickel  trimmings.  Upstairs 
were  irreproachably  made  beds,  and  from  the  bureau 
drawers  she  took  a  few  little  treasures,  hand-woven 
cloth  and  kerchiefs,  things  from  home,  to  show  me. 
Outside  the  whole  air  was  full  of  the  rust-colored  smoke 
from  the  great  steel  works  opposite,  where  her  husband 
worked,  and  near  by  stood  a  new  and  ornate  Ruthenian 
church. 

In  spite  of  sunny  rooms  and  American  plenty,  she 
regretted  being  there.  Indeed,  I  get  the  impression 
that  the  women  are  more  apt  to  be  homesick  than  their 
husbands,  and  that  they  often  make  them  return  against 
their  wishes.  As  a  matter  of  fact  I  think  the  women 
lose  more  and  gain  less  by  the  change  than  the  men. 
They  do  not  like  the  iron  stoves,  which  do  not  bake  such 
sweet  bread  as  their  old  ovens.  They  miss,  I  think,  the 
variety  of  work,  outdoor  and  indoor  alternately,  field 
work  in  sociable  companionship  with  husband  or  lovers 
and  neighbors,  the  garden  with  its  rows  of  tall  sun- 
flowers, the  care  of  the  chickens  and  ducks  and  geese, 
and  most  of  all  the  familiar  village  life  where  every  one 
knows  every  one  else,  and  there  are  no  uncomfortable, 
superior  Yankees  to  abash  one,  and  where  the  children 
do  not  grow  up  to  be  alien  and  contemptuous. 

In  this  chapter  we  have  caught  a  few  glimpses 
of  the  upward  progress  which  some  of  the  pupils 


148     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

in  our  huge  school,  as  we  have  called  the  United 
States,  are  making.  The  social  uplift  is,  however, 
too  varied  in  character  and  too  vast  in  extent  to 
be  more  than  suggested  in  these  few  pages.  Its 
effects  may  be  seen  all  around  us  if  we  choose  to 
look.  In  the  cities  there  is  a  fairly  steady  tend- 
ency for  the  immigrants  to  push  out  from  the  tene- 
ment districts  into  the  suburbs  and  less  crowded 
quarters.  The  movement  is  slow,  but  it  is  none 
the  less  apparent  to  the  observer  in  Boston,  New 
York,  or  Chicago.  In  the  country  assimilation  is 
constantly  going  on.  And  when  we  remember 
that  what  progress  is  being  made  is  made  in  the 
face  of  our  national  lethargy  and  indifference, 
may  we  not  look  forward  to  a  more  rapid  develop- 
ment when  we  really  arise  and  shoulder  our 
burden  ? 

It  is  a  far-reaching  and  tremendous  task,  this 
caring  for  the  stranger  within  our  gates.  There 
is  so  much  to  be  done  that  at  first  there  may  seem 
to  be  no  hope  of  accomplishing  anything.  Chil- 
dren must  be  taken  out  of  the  streets  and  fac- 
tories, washed,  sent  to  school,  given  proper  op- 
portunities for  healthful  play  and  development. 
Boys  must  be  given  a  chance  to  learn  useful 
trades  and  to  absorb  American  ideals  of  manly 
conduct.  Girls  must  be  fitted  for  American  wife- 
hood. Mothers  must  be  shown  how  to  care  for 
their  children,  must  be  taught  that  dirt  and  moral 
degradation  are  apt  to  go  hand  in  hand,  and  must 
be  helped  to  make  their  homes  powerful  forces 


AMERICA    OF    TO-MORROW  149 

in  the  uplifting  of  their  husbands  and  children. 
The  sunshine  of  the  American  spirit  must  be 
made  to  penetrate  all  the  dark  places ;  our  broad, 
sane,  wholesome  American  ideals  must  be  brought 
home  to  the  lowliest  stranger  of  them  all. 

Further  examples  of  the  uplifting  work  will 
be  found  in  Appendix  V. 


VII 

WORK   OF  WOMEN'S  HOME    MISSIONARY 
SOCIETIES* 

BAPTIST 

WOMEN'S  BAPTIST  HOME  MISSION  SOCIETY 

Cor.  Sec,  Miss  Mary  G.  Burdette,  2421  Indiana  Ave., 
Chicago,  111. 

"The  Board  of  the  Women's  Baptist  Home  Mission 
Society  is  profoundly  impressed  with  the  claims  of  these 
alien  populations  upon  the  specific  work  to  which  God 
has  called  this  organization,  and  the  peculiar  adapta- 
tion of  its  methods  to  their  peculiar  needs." 

The  above  words  were  written  in  1878  by  the 
Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Women's  Baptist 
Home  Mission  Society,  organized  only  a  Httle 
more  than  a  year  earUer,  having  for  its  distinctive 
object  a  work  by  properly  qualified  Christian 
women  among  needy  and  neglected  populations ; 
this  work  to  be  effected  by  house  to  house  visita- 
tion and  mothers'  meetings,  and  the  gathering  of 
the  children  from  these  homes  into  industrial 
schools  and  children's  meetings. 

At  this  time  there  was  in  the  city  of  Chicago 

*  This  chapter  was  edited  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Inter-denominational  Committee  of  the  Home  Mission 
Study  Course. 

150 


MISSIONARY    SOCIETIES    151 

a  pastor  of  a  Danish-Norwegian  church,  an  ear- 
nest Christian  and  an  able  preacher.  His  church 
was  located  in  the  midst  of  a  large  Scandinavian 
population,  but  his  congregations  were  small.  He 
was  convinced  that  if  these  people  were  to  be 
reached,  the  message  in  most  cases  must  be  first 
taken  to  them  in  their  homes,  and  while  not  ig- 
norant of  the  difficulties,  he  determined  to  make 
every  eflfort  in  his  power  to  overcome  opposition 
and  to  open  doors.  But  all  was  in  vain.  One 
day,  after  hours  spent  in  repeated  but  fruitless 
attempts,  he  hurried  to  his  room,  threw  himself 
on  his  knees  and  prayed,  "O  Lord,  are  there  no 
godly  women  among  my  people  who  can  do  this 
work  ?" 

Even  before  he  asked,  the  answer  to  his  peti- 
tion was  ready,  for  only  a  few  days  earlier,  there 
had  appeared  before  the  Board  of  this  Society  a 
Swedish  woman,  stating  the  urgent  needs  and 
pleading  for  an  appointment  to  labor  as  a  mis- 
sionary among  her  people. 

Her  acceptance  was  the  beginning  of  the  work 
of  the  Women's  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society 
among  European  immigrant  populations  in  our 
country,  and  it  has  grown  until  the  last  report 
shows  fifty-three  missionaries  bearing  its  com- 
mission and  employed  in  its  distinctive  work  at 
Ellis  Island  and  in  thirty-six  cities  in  the  United 
States  and  one  in  Canada.  These  are  reaching 
^directly  fifteen  nationalities,  and  indirectly,  sev- 
eral more. 


152     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

NATURE  AND  VALUE  OF  THE  WORK 

The  nature  and  value  of  the  work  may  best  be 
seen  in  incidents  and  experiences  as  recorded  by 
missionaries. 

A  missionary  tells  of  a  young  widow  who  had 
come  from  Hungary  to  better  herself  and  educate 
her  child.  She  had  expected  to  go  to  friends  in 
New  York,  but  they  declined  to  take  her.  The 
Immigrant  Board  decided  to  send  her  back.  "I 
found  her,"  writes  the  missionary,  "in  one  of  the 
detention  rooms,  almost  prostrated,  for  she  had 
sacrificed  her  little  home  in  the  old  country  and 
spent  all  of  her  money  to  get  to  this  land.  Seeing 
that  she  was  an  intelligent  young  woman,  capable 
of  taking  care  of  herself  and  her  boy,  I  succeeded, 
by  becoming  responsible  for  her,  in  securing  her 
release.  A  few  weeks  ago  I  received  a  letter 
from  her,  thanking  me  again  and  again  for  what 
I  had  done  for  her  and  telling  of  the  good  posi- 
tion she  had  and  her  gratitude  for  the  care  and 
education  her  boy  is  receiving  in  this  blessed  land. 
Best  of  all,  she  expressed  gratitude  for  the  inter- 
est taken  in  her  soul's  welfare  and  my  appeal  for 
her  to  accept  Christ  as  her  Saviour,  Friend,  and 
Guide  in  her  new  home,  and  said  that  she  had 
done  so,  and  was  resolved  to  serve  him  as  long 
as  she  liveu.  ' 

"We  minister  to  the  physical  needs  of  the  peo- 
ple," writes  another,  "and  distribute  in  many  lan- 
guages  a  large  number  of  tracts,  papers,   and 


MISSIONARY    SOCIETIES    153 

booklets,  besides  many  portions  of  the  Word  of 
God,  especially  the  Gospels  and  not  a  few  New 
Testaments. 

"I  have  had  crowds  of  Jews  listen  as  I  have 
told  them  of  my  blessed  Rabbi,  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
and  have  seen  them,  after  the  little  talk,  go  quietly 
to  their  seats  and  thoughtfully  read  gospel  litera- 
ture. A  favorite  booklet  among  immigrants  who 
read  German  is  one  entitled,  'A  Welcome  to  your 
New  Home  Country.'  That  the  fame  of  this 
little  book  has  gone  back  to  the  fatherland  was 
made  evident  when  we  met  a  woman  who  ear- 
nestly asked,  'Have  you  a  little  book  called 
"Homesickness"?'  We  showed  her  on  the  cover 
of  one,  'A  Welcome  to  Your  New  Home  Coun- 
try.' 'Oh,  yes,'  she  exclaimed,  'that's  it;  will 
you  give  me  two?  I  want  to  send  one  back  to 
Russia.' 

"Many  large  families  come  from  Russia,  some- 
times with  as  many  as  fourteen  children  in  one 
family ;  and  I  wish  you  could  see  me  among  the 
thousands  of  Hungarians  that  have  come  in  such 
throngs  lately." 

HOME  WORK 

There  is  abundant  evidence  that  seed  sown  at 
the  landing  place  bears  rich  fruit,  but  the  work 
there  begun  must  be  followed  up  in  the  places 
where  these  people  settle,  if  we  would  reap  the 
largest  result. 


154    THE   INCOMING   MILLIONS 

Read  between  the  lines  in  the  following  clipping 
from  the  record  kept  by  a  German  missionary  : 

I  find  in  my  diary  some  very  busy  days  reported  in 
a  very  few  words,  like  the  following: 

1.  A  peace  conference.  Satan  had  sown  discord  in 
a  once  happy  home  and  I  count  it  among  the  most 
sacred  services  to  have  been  able  to  restore  peace 
through  the  help  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.  Not  until 
II  p.  M.  was  the  work  accomplished,  but  it  was  worth 
while. 

2.  Ironing  baptismal  robes;  address  in  afternoon; 
address  in  evening ;  came  home  very  late. 

3.  Called  on  Mrs.  C. ;  helped  her  into  the  light  of 
God's  love.  This  is  easily  said,  but  it  means  previous 
visits  and  anxiety  concerning  her  husband,  searching 
the  Scripture,  earnest  prayer,  and  waiting  on  the  Lord. 

4.  A  few  days  later  I  read :  A  happy  day.  Lizzie 
sent  for  me  and  God  gave  me  grace  to  point  her  to  the 
cross. 

5.  Another  day  is  reported  as  "Giving  sheltering 
arms,"  when  rescuing  a  child  of  nine  years  from  a  cruel 
stepfather. 

6.  I  am  in  possession  of  a  marriage  certificate  which 
was  torn  in  pieces  by  an  angry  parent.  It  was  given 
to  the  missionary  for  safe  keeping.  As  I  carefully 
mended  it  my  heart  ached  for  those  torn  and  bleeding 
far  away  from  the  love  of  God.  There  are  many,  many 
experiencing  just  such  a  miserable  existence  in  our 
bright  land  of  liberty. 

7.  A  truly  glad  and  happy  day.  Twelve  precious 
souls  united  with  the  church. 

8.  Helped  to  move  Mrs.  B.'s  family,  while  she  is 
in  the  hospital.  Back  and  forth  to  hospital,  to  doctors 
and  sick  rooms. 

9.  To  funerals,  and  festivals,  farewell  receptions,  birth- 
day parties,  and  to  wedding  anniversaries. 

Through  house  to  house  visits  we  are  brought  face 
to  face  with  the  needs  of  the  people,  and  during  this 
year  I  have  distributed  nearly  nine  hundred  garments, 
fifty-nine  pairs  of  shoes,  thirty-four  hats,  quilts,  etc., 
and  many  baskets  of  groceries.  Seventy-six  letters  con- 
taining words  of  cheer  to  our  shut-ins  and  sick  folks 
have  been  written. 


MISSIONARY   SOCIETIES    155 

BETTER  SERVANTS 

Note  in  the  following  a  variation  in  the  work: 
"On  Thursday,  their  afternoon  out,  I  gather 
servant  girls  at  four  o'clock  for  a  social  time. 
Of  thirteen  servant  girls  belonging  to  our  church 
only  four  have  homes.  These  homeless  girls  have 
joyfully  welcomed  this  plan.  After  a  social  hour, 
supper  is  served  and  after  the  dishes  have  been 
put  away  we  gather  about  the  table  for  Bible 
study  and  prayer.  The  objects  sought  are  that 
we  who  are  Christians  may  attain  to  a  higher 
plane  of  living  and  reach  out  after  others.  The 
Christian  young  women  are  seeking  to  bring  into 
the  fold  the  unconverted  of  their  class.  I  am 
sure  those  who  attend  these  meetings  have  be- 
come better  servants." 

FROM  EVERY  CLIME 

There  is  a  wealth  of  suggestion  in  this  sentence 
from  a  recent  report  made  by  one  of  our  mission- 
aries in  a  western  city :  ''Our  Sunday  school,  gath- 
ered largely  as  the  result  of  house  to  house  visita- 
tion, enrolls  the  children  of  Poles,  Bohemians, 
Jews,  Germans,  Swedes,  Irish,  and  Belgians." 

Another  missionary  worker  at  work  in  an  east- 
ern city  recently  sent  us  a  photograph  of  a  group 
of  children  in  one  Sunday  school  on  her  field,  in 
which  we  noted  the  faces  of  Jews  from  Austria- 
Hungary,  Hungarians,  Slovaks,  Croatians,  Aus- 
trians,    Germans,    and   Welsh.     Almost   without 


156     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

exception  these  children  are  from  homes  visited 
by  the  missionary.  Many  of  them  come  through 
the  connecting  Hnk,  the  industrial  school,  in  which 
the  boys  are  taught  rafia  work,  table  mats,  picture 
frames,  and  basketry,  to  which  elementary  car- 
pentry has  been  added.  The  girls  are  mostly  en- 
gaged in  needle  work ;  among  articles  made  we 
note  pin-cushions,  iron-holders,  aprons,  and  other 
simple  garments.  The  little  ones  sew  the  pricked 
cards  used  in  the  kindergarten.  The  opportunity 
is  not  lost  for  the  Bible  instruction  and  teaching 
of  nature  and  patriotic  songs,  and  for  lessons 
in  etiquette,  cleanliness,  physical  culture,  and 
morality. 

It  is  a  glad  day  to  children  in  the  Sunday  or 
industrial  school  when  the  missionary  brightens 
the  home  with  her  presence.  To  such  homes  she 
needs  no  introduction  if  the  children  are  there,  as 
often  before  she  can  reach  the  door,  she  hears, 
"Mamma,  my  teacher  comes,  my  teacher  comes," 
and  she  meets  no  scowling  or  suspicious  woman, 
but  a  smiling  mother,  and  usually  a  hearty  wel- 
come. 

There  is,  also,  a  wealth  of  hopeful  suggestion 
in  the  conviction  of  the  child  who  lived  in  a  dark, 
gloomy  tenement  and  on  a  dark  day  remarked, 
"Mamma,  if  my  teacher  would  come,  the  sun 
would  surely  shine." 

"Concerning  our  missionary  lessons,"  says  one 
worker,  "one  mother  said,  'I  think  you  will  make 
a  missionary  of  my  little  girl ;  she  talks  all  the 


MISSIONARY    SOCIETIES    157 

time  about  the  little  children  somewhere  that  do 
not  know  Jesus,  and  she  is  all  the  time  saving  her 
pennies  for  them.' " 

One  of  our  missionaries,  in  her  efforts  to  in- 
terest the  children  in  helping  to  win  both  our 
country  and  the  world  for  Christ,  has  two  boxes 
in  which  to  receive  their  offerings.  When  she 
holds  up  one  and  asks,  "What  is  this  for?"  the 
children  respond,  "Our  Country  for  Christ" ;  and 
then  when  she  presents  the  other  they  reply,  "The 
World  for  Christ,"  and  then  follow  with  their 
offerings.  One  of  the  children,  at  the  close  of 
a  cottage  prayer  meeting,  called  out,  "Now  is  the 
time  for  the  offering."  As  it  was  not  the  custom 
to  make  an  offering  at  these  meetings  the  ques- 
tion was  asked,  "For  what  ?"  The  child's  answer 
was  quick  and  positive,  "Our  Country  for  Christ." 
May  we  not  expect  in  children  thus  trained  a  gen- 
eration of  Christian  patriots  ?  And  of  what  does 
our  country  stand  in  greater  need  ? 

WOMAN'S    AMERICAN    BAPTIST    HOME    MIS- 
SION   SOCIETY 

Cor.  Sec,  Mrs.  M.  C.  Reynolds,  Tremont  Temple, 
Boston,  Mass. 

This  Society,  which  works  in  close  affiliation 
with  the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  So- 
ciety, maintains  a  number  of  missionary  workers 
among  the  Chinese,  French,  and  Scandinavians. 
Miss  Mathilda  Brown,  whose  work  is  primarily 
among  the   Scandinavians,   gives   a   very  large 


158     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

part  of  her  time  to  ministering  to  the  immi- 
grants landing  at  the  port  of  Boston,  and  reaches 
all  classes,  including  Italians  and  Slavs.  In  a 
recent  report  she  says  : 

The  most  important  work  I  think  has  been  among  the 
immigrants.  There  are  hardly  words  strong  enough  to 
express  our  duty  for  this  work  among  those  strangers 
as  they  arrive  at  our  shores.  A  great  number  of  young 
people  have  come  to  our  country  the  last  year,  and  they 
all  need  help,  and  they  all  look  up  to  us  for  it,  and  there 
is  great  opportunity  for  spiritual  work.  I  have  given  out 
among  the  immigrants  as  they  arrived  five  thousand 
tracts,  and  numbers  of  New  Testaments.  Thank  God 
for  opportunity   given  us   to   spread  the   gospel. 

Many  young  people  who  come  here  stay  in  our  own 
city,  and  it  is  a  pleasure  to  call  on  them  and  invite  them 
to  church.  Some  time  ago  a  steamer  came  in  during  the 
week,  and  a  great  number  of  those  whom  I  met  intended 
to  stay  in  Boston,  and  I  gave  them  the  address  of  our 
church.  The  following  Sunday  evening  seven  of  these 
strangers  came  to  church,  and  I  was  certainly  glad  to 
see  them,  and  they  seemed  to  be  glad  to  see  me,  as  I  was 
the  only  one  they  knew  in  the  congregation.  We  want 
to  specially  care  for  these  who  stay  in  our  city  and 
vicinity  as  they  come,  because  that  is  the  best  time  to 
reach  them,  and  the  right  time  to  win  them  for  Christ. 
As  I  write  my  report  I  am  waiting  for  a  steamer,  and 
yesterday  I  received  two  letters,  one  from  Worcester,  to 
take  care  of  a  young  woman  as  she  arrives ;  and  an- 
other from  Connecticut,  to  meet  a  young  boy  on  these 
steamers.  Oftentimes  letters  come  from  Sweden,  ask- 
ing me  to  care  for  some  immigrants  as  they  arrive  in  the 
new  country. 

There  are  five  Sunday  schools  connected  with 
the  Swedish  Mission  in  Boston,  and  many  hun- 
dreds of  children  and  parents  are  reached 
through  this  agency.  The  large  increase  of  the 
foreign  element  in  New  England  has  awakened 
the  Christian  people  to  the  necessity  of  doing 
more  for  their  evangelization,  and  the  American 


MISSIONARY    SOCIETIES    159 

Baptist  Home  Mission  Society,  the  Baptist  State 
Missionary  Association,  and  the  Woman's  So- 
ciety will  labor  in  cooperation  to  meet  this  need, 
as  far  as  resources  will  permit. 

CONGREGATIONAL 

FEDERATION  OF  WOMEN'S  HOME   MISSION- 
ARY UNIONS 

President,  Mrs.  W.  B.  Firman,  1012  Iowa  Street,  Oak 
Park,  111. 

Congregational  women  are  organized  for  home 
missionary  work  by  States,  and  these  forty-one 
State  unions,  with  a  few  exceptions,  are  members 
of  a  National  Federation.  These  unions  work 
through  the  Congregational  Home  Missionary  so- 
cieties, whose  work  for  the  immigrant  population 
is  as  follows : 

The  Congregational  Home  Missionary  Society 
has  commissioned  one  hundred  and  ninety-eight 
preachers  to  foreign  congregations  in  the  United 
States ;  thirty-eight  to  German  churches,  ninety- 
two  to  Scandinavians,  twenty-two  to  Bohemians, 
two  to  Polish,  eight  to  French,  one  to  Mexicans, 
thirteen  to  Italians,  six  to  Spanish,  six  to  Finns, 
three  to  Danes,  eight  to  Armenians,  and  one  to 
Greeks.  In  all  there  are  twenty  nationalities 
which  hear  the  Gospel  in  their  mother-tongue 
through  Congregational  ministry.  Many  foreign- 
speaking  churches  are  not  mentioned  in  this  ac- 
count, having  reached  self-support,  though  they 
owe  their  beginning  to  the  Congregational  Sun- 


160     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

day-school  and  Publishing  Society.  This  society 
works  through  the  State  and  district  superintend- 
ents, who  speak  various  languages  and  have  the 
readiest  means  of  touching  the  foreign  popula- 
tions, that  is,  through  the  children.  Besides  this 
work  for  the  children  of  foreigners,  this  society 
has  assisted  the  publication  of  Danish-Norwegian, 
German,  Bohemian,  Swedish,  Polish,  and  French 
religious  papers. 

Chicago  Theological  Seminary  for  the  Congre- 
gational ministry  has  three  aggressive  and  pros- 
perous foreign  departments,  the  German,  Danish- 
Norwegian,  and  Swedish  Institutes.  One  of  the 
largest  Norwegian  religious  weeklies  is  published 
by  professors  in  the  Seminary  and  has  a  circula- 
tion of  forty-five  hundred. 

The  Congregational  Education  Society  sup- 
ports schools  and  colleges  for  foreign  young 
people  to  the  end  that  they  may  become  Christian 
leaders  of  their  own  people  in  this  country. 
Three  of  the  most  important  are  mentioned  in  the 
following : 

The  Schauffler  Missionary  Training  School  for 
girls  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  founded  primarily  for 
training  girls  to  minister  to  Slavic  communities, 
has  now  widened  its  welcome  to  girls  of  any  na- 
tionality who  desire  such  training  for  definite 
Christian  service  in  this  country.  At  present  two- 
thirds  of  the  young  women  are  in  training  for 
foreign-speaking  churches  or  communities. 

The  American  International  College,  Spring- 


MISSIONARY    SOCIETIES    161 

field,  Mass.,  whose  name  so  amply  defines  its 
peculiar  purpose,  is  attended  by  students  of  seven- 
teen different  nationalities. 

Redfield  College,  North  Dakota,  is  for  German 
young  people ;  some  of  them  enter  the  German 
ministry  and  many  others  become  influences  for 
higher  conceptions  and  practices  of  Christianity 
in  the  numerous  German  settlements  in  South 
Dakota  and  bordering  States. 

The  Chinese  and  Japanese  in  California  are 
served  by  the  American  Missionary  Association, 
which  completes  the  organized  effort  of  Congre- 
gationalism for  our  foreign  population. 

CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN 
CHURCH 

WOMEN'S  BOARD  OF  MISSIONS 

Cor.  Sec,  Mrs.   Dee  Ferguson   Clarke,  Evansville, 
Ind. 

This  Board  has  as  yet  no  immigration  work, 
but  is  scattering  leaflets  and  preparing  the  way 
for  future  efforts  in  this  direction. 

METHODIST  EPISCOPAL 

WOMAN'S  HOME  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY 
Cor.  Sec,  Mrs.  Delia  L.  Williams,  Delaware,  Ohio 
At  five  ports  of  entry — New  York,  Boston, 
Philadelphia,  San  Francisco,  and  San  Pedro 
(California) — the  Woman's  Home  Missionary 
Society  maintains  organized  work  among  immi- 
grants. 


162     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

In  San  Francisco  our  missionaries,  with  inter- 
preters, meet  the  ships  coming  from  the  Orient, 
and  with  the  cordial  cooperation  of  government 
officials  and  the  refuge  of  Homes  maintained  by 
the  Society,  are  able  to  insure  legal  marriage  to 
Chinese  and  Japanese  girls,  or  to  save  them  from 
a  fate  worse  than  death.  This  work  will  be  con- 
sidered more  fully  in  a  subsequent  book  of  the 
Home  Mission  course. 

The  work  in  San  Pedro  is  in  its  infancy.  "The 
missionary  does  royal  service  among  the  foreign 
population  of  this  liquor-cursed  city.  She  has 
free  access  to  all  ships  coming  into  the  harbor,  and 
is  especially  helpful  to  the  families  of  sailors  and 
officers  living  in  San  Pedro.  Most  of  those  com- 
mg  in  on  the  lumber  boats  are  foreigners.  She 
distributes  comfort  bags,  and  large  bags  of  good 
literature  to  be  hung  in  the  forecastle.  She  holds 
prayer  services,  visits  from  house  to  house,  and 
gathers  the  little  children  into  sewing  school, 
teaching  them  to  pray  and  sing,  as  well." 

In  Philadelphia,  immigrant  work  under  the 
charge  of  a  deaconess  consists  in  meeting  each 
incoming  steamer  and  rendering  "aid  and  com- 
fort," especially  to  the  women  and  children.  One 
needs  to  visit  the  scene  of  such  work  in  order  to 
appreciate  its  value. 

"An  arm  of  aid  to  the  weak, 

A  friendly  hand  to  the  friendless, 
Kind  words,  so  swift  to  speak, 

But  whose  echo  is  endless; 
The  world  is  wide;  these  things  are  small; 
They  may  be  nothing;  but  they  are  all." 


MISSIONARY    SOCIETIES    163 

In  East  Boston  the  Society  has  an  Immigrant 
Home  at  72-74  Marginal  Street,  opposite  the 
Cunard  wharf.  Here,  as  at  every  port  of  entry, 
harpies  in  human  form  wait  for  the  innocent  and 
unsuspecting  girls  who  are  strangers  in  a  strange 
land.  It  was  the  special  need  of  rescue  and  pro- 
tection for  these  girls — a  need  that  can  be  met 
only  by  Christian  womanhood — that  led  here,  as 
elsewhere,  to  the  establishment  of  immigrant 
work  by  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society. 

But  the  services  rendered  have  broadened  with 
the  years,  and  though  other  societies,  both  Catho- 
lic and  Protestant,  have  entered  the  same  field,  the 
need  of  just  such  help  as  our  missionaries  render 
has  increased  with  the  increasing  number  of  im- 
migrants landed  on  American  shores. 

In  1890  a  gift  of  $5000  by  Mrs.  C.  W.  Pierce, 
of  Boston,  made  possible  the  purchase  of  the 
Home,  a  veritable  lighthouse  set  in  the  midst  of 
saloons  and  other  traps  for  the  stumbling  feet  of 
the  newcomers.  The  majority  of  the  girls  who 
come  to  this  Home  are  Scandinavians,  ignorant  of 
American  language  and  customs,  and  American 
ways  of  housekeeping.  During  the  time  that  they 
remain  in  the  Home  they  are  given  as  much  in- 
dustrial training  as  possible,  and  some  teaching 
in  the  English  language.  The  children  of  the 
neighborhood,  principally  of  foreign  nationality, 
are  gathered  in  a  weekly  sewing-school,  in  which 
they  also  receive  religious  instruction. 

One  of  the  lower  rooms  of  the  Home,  formerly 


164     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

a  saloon,  is  used  for  a  chapel.  Bibles  and  good 
reading  matter  are  freely  supplied,  and  hearts 
made  tender  by  homesickness  and  weariness  are 
touched  and  helped  by  the  loving  deeds  and  the 
stories  of  him  who  is  the  Saviour  alike  of  Jew  and 
Gentile.  Another  room  is  used  as  a  dormitory 
and  reading-room  for  men. 

As  New  York  is  the  chief  port  of  entry,  the 
missionary  stationed  there  has  the  opportunity  to 
touch  many  springs  of  action,  to  reach  many 
hearts,  to  help  many  who  are  suffering  and  dis- 
tressed. By  following  her  in  the  rounds  of  a 
typical  day  at  Ellis  Island  we  may  secure  a  bird's- 
eye  view  of  the  work  in  other  places  as  well  as 
there.  We  need  not  note  those  just  landed,  at 
first,  for  there  are  always  enough  waiting  over  to 
command  her  kind  attention. 

"Good-morning,"  says  an  official  as  she  enters 
the  building,  "there  is  a  woman  in  the  deferred 
room  who  needs  your  help." 

"What  is  the  matter?" 

"I  don't  know.  We  can't  find  out.  She's  al- 
most crazy." 

"All  right,  I  will  see  to  it,"  is  the  ready  reply. 

A  glance  around  the  deferred  room  reveals  to 
her  practised  eye  the  woman  described,  but  before 
reaching  her  she  stops  with  a  ^yord  of  cheer  for 
a  Russian  peasant  mother  delayed  in  going  on 
to  the  far  West  to  join  her  husband  by  the  serious 
illness  of  her  child.  "Can  the  missionary  speak 
Russian?"     Oh,  no!     But  there  is  a  language 


MISSIONARY    SOCIETIES    165 

of  signs  and  smiles  which  antedates  mere  racial 
speech.  Her  hand-grasp  is  warm  and  sisterly. 
She  points  in  the  direction  of  the  hospital  with 
a  smiling  face,  and  claps  her  hands  in  token  of 
good  news.  The  mother  knows  at  once  that  her 
boy  is  better.  "When  can  he  come,  and  when 
can  we  go  on?"  The  question  is  unspoken  save 
by  the  mother's  longing  eyes,  but  the  missionary 
reads  it  and  answers  by  pointing  again  to  the 
hospital,  then  to  the  woman  herself,  and  holding 
up  two  fingers.  Still  there  is  doubt ;  is  it  two  days 
or  two  weeks?  The  missionary  folds  her  hands, 
drops  her  head,  and  seems  to  be  asleep.  She 
"wakens"  with  animation,  "sleeps"  again,  and 
then  repeats  the  smile  and  the  two-finger  sign. 
Now  the  mother  understands.  Only  two  nights, 
and  her  boy  will  leave  the  hospital.  Oh,  the  grati- 
tude in  her  face,  the  voluble  thanks,  the  kissing 
of  the  hands  that,  literally,  have  brought  her  such 
welcome  news !  Often  it  is  not  kissing  of  the 
hands  alone,  but  a  genuine  embrace,  the  impact  of 
warm  and  not  over-clean  arms  around  the  mis- 
sionary. It  may  not  be  quite  comfortable,  but  this 
service  is  "for  the  love  of  Christ  and  in  his  name." 
What  matter  rags  and  dirt,  if  contact  with  them 
helps  to  reveal  the  Spirit  of  the  Master? 

Over  in  the  corner,  groaning  and  muttering  to 
herself,  is  the  "almost  crazy"  woman.  The  mis- 
sionary touches  her  gently  on  the  arm.  She  looks 
up,  to  find,  not  a  brass-buttoned  officer,  however 
well  disposed,  but  the  kind  face  of  a  sister  woman. 


166     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

Signs  assist  the  voice  that  asks  in  an  unknown 
tongue  if  she  is  alone,  where  she  came  from, 
where  she  is  going.  The  woman  gathers  confi- 
dence and  suddenly  thrusts  her  hand  into  the  folds 
of  her  dress  and  produces  a  paper  written  in 
Armenian.  It  is  a  case  for  the  interpreter,  who 
comes  at  call.  Explanation  is  quickly  made. 
Frightened  by  the  strangeness  of  everything 
around  her  the  poor  woman  would  say  nothing  in 
response  to  the  questioning  officials,  withholding 
all  information,  carefully  concealing  the  fact  that 
she  had  funds  more  than  sufficient  to  meet  the 
law's  requirements.  She  ran  imminent  risk,  al- 
though unknown  to  herself,  of  being  sent  back  to 
the  land  of  the  "unspeakable  Turk,'  instead  of 
going  on  to  the  son  and  daughter  who  were 
eagerly  waiting  her  coming  in  a  New  England 
city.  Only  a  woman's  hand  could  have  unlocked 
the  door  of  her  heart  and  given  the  needed  help. 

By  this  time  others  in  the  room  have  recog- 
nized a  friend.  Papers  are  eagerly  thrust  into 
her  hands  and  questions  asked  in  well-nigh  all  the 
tongues  of  Babel,  and  to  all  cheerful  response  is 
given. 

A  visit  to  the  hospital,  an  interview  with  the 
Commissioner  in  behalf  of  a  pitiful  "case,"  and 
similar  duties  follow.  Time  passes  rapidly  in 
work  like  this,  and  it  is  late  in  the  afternoon  when 
the  missionary  goes  into  the  New  York  room  to 
look  up  girls  whom  she  may  take  to  the  Immi- 
grant Girls'  Home  at  No.  9  State  Street.    A  ship 


MISSIONARY    SOCIETIES    167 

from  Liverpool  and  one  from  Bremen  have  de- 
posited thousands  of  immigrants  in  the  station 
during  the  day,  and  among  those  "admitted"  with- 
out question  are  rosy-cheeked  EngHsh  lassies, 
good-natured  but  stolid  Finnish  girls,  and  others 
who  have  sought  to  better  themselves  in  the  new 
world.  Some  are  waiting  for  friends  to  whom 
word  of  their  arrival  has  been  sent ;  others  are 
alone,  without  kith  or  kin,  or  even  acquaint- 
ances on  this  side  the  sea.  To  the  honor  of 
our  Immigration  service  be  it  said  that  no  unpro- 
tected girl  is  allowed  to  leave  the  shelter  of  the 
Immigrant  station,  somewhat  forbidding  though 
it  may  be.  The  Immigrant  Girls'  Home  helps 
to  solve  what  would  otherwise  be  a  serious  prob- 
lem, by  providing  shelter  for  such  girls.  What 
this  means  is  well  described  by  one  who  writes  of 
the  Home  in  East  Boston : 

"Girls  who  have  no  destination  in  view,  or  are 
waiting  for  friends  who  have  not  yet  come  to  meet 
them,  are  taken  to  the  Home,  and  for  a  small  com- 
pensation, if  they  are  able  to  pay  it,  are  cared  for 
there.  If  they  are  unable  to  pay  they  receive 
equally  good  care.  Here  is  a  Home  for  them 
when  homesickness  overtakes  them  or  any  trouble 
causes  them  to  need  the  wise  and  loving  counsel 
and  advice  of  the  missionary.  Weddings,  fu- 
nerals, and  christenings  have  all  taken  place  here." 

The  deaconess  department  of  the  Woman's 
Home  Missionary  Society  is  an  important  factor 
in  rendering  help  to  the  masses  of  foreign  birth 


168     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

who  settle  in  our  large  cities.  Through  the 
agency  of  these  consecrated  messengers  of  the 
King,  the  homes  are  reached  and  mothers  and 
children,  and  stories  of  the  Christ  are  told  to  those 
who  otherwise  would  have  no  knowledge  of  Him 
who  came  to  seek  and  save. 

An  extensive  Bohemian  work  in  Baltimore  is 
largely  indebted  to  this  society  for  its  origin  and 
maintenance.  Among  the  immigrant  population 
of  the  Pennsylvania  mining  regions  work  is  car- 
ried on,  and  only  lack  of  funds  prevents  its  mani- 
fold expansion.  These  are  they  of  whom  the 
Master  said,  "Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto 
one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me." 


METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 
SOUTH 

WOMAN'S  HOME  MISSION  SOCIETY 

Gen.  Sec,  Mrs.  R.  W.  Macdonell,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

The  Woman's  Home  Mission  Society  added 
an  educational  department  to  its  work  in  1892, 
opening  its  first  school — the  Wolf  Mission 
School — at  Ybor  City,  Florida.  In  this  place 
and  in  the  cigar  factories  in  West  Tampa  more 
than  eight  thousand  Cubans  are  engaged.  These 
were  not  brought  into  contact  with  American 
ideas  or  people.  Not  one  elevating  influence 
was  to  be   found  about  their  homes.     Later  a 


MISSIONARY    SOCIETIES    169 

school  was  opened  at  West  Tampa.  The  Ruth 
Hargrove  Seminary,  at  Key  West,  Fla.,  has 
more  than  three  hundred  in  attendance,  one- 
third  of  whom  are  Cubans.  Regular  grade 
work  is  done  in  this  school  and  students  are  pre- 
pared for  college. 

A  night  school  for  Italian  men  in  Tampa  re- 
sulted in  the  establishment  of  an  Italian  church. 
At  Ybor  City  there  are  five  thousand  Italians, 
and  a  flourishing  day  school  has  been  opened  for 
their  children.  Church  and  school  are  well  at- 
tended, and  an  earnest  of  great  good  is  given  in 
this  mission  work  at  "Little  Italy." 

The  Society  cares  for  three  night  schools  for 
Japanese  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  at  San  Francisco, 
Alameda,  and  Oakland.  Arrivals  from  Japan 
are  met  by  the  students  when  they  land,  and 
given  a  cordial  welcome  in  these  homes  until 
they  find  employment.  As  a  result  of  these  night 
schools  two  Japanese  Methodist  churches  have 
been  organized. 

At  Los  Angeles,  a  night  school  is  established 
for  Chinese.  Many  who  have  come  to  the 
school  to  learn  to  read  and  write  our  English 
have  learned  to  know  and  love  our  Christ,  and 
from  time  to  time  have  united  with  our  church. 
At  this  time  one  of  the  pupils  is  supporting  an- 
other who  has  returned  to  China  as  a  missionary. 
Both  of  these  learned  of  Christ  at  night  school. 

New  Orleans  and  Galveston  also  furnish 
broad  fields  for  immigrant  work  in  the  South. 


170     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

During  the  year  1906,  more  than  60,000  for- 
eigners have  located  in  the  cotton  belt.  Most 
of  these  are  Italians  and  Sicilians,  forty-eight 
per  cent,  of  whom  are  illiterates.  By  a  system 
of  City  Mission  Boards  the  Woman's  Home 
Mission  Society  endeavors  to  reach  and  help 
these  foreigners,  employing  deaconesses,  or  city 
missionaries,  who  have  been  thoroughly  trained 
for  the  work.  In  eight  of  our  large  cities  these 
workers  live  in  homes  known  as  Wesley  Houses, 
which  are  located  in  the  districts  that  give  them 
the  largest  circle  of  usefulness.  In  these  homes 
the  boys  and  girls  are  gathered  into  clubs,  which 
help  to  develop  their  real  manhood  and  woman- 
hood. Special  and  successful  effort  is  made  to 
become  friends  with  boys  of  the  "ganging"  age. 
Night  schools,  reading  rooms,  mothers'  clubs, 
kindergartens,  and  day  nurseries  give  an  oppor- 
tunity to  help  the  physical,  mental,  and  spiritual 
needs  of  their  neighbors. 


PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 

WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

Cor.  Sec,  Mrs.  Ella  R.  Boole.  156  Fifth  Avenue,  New 
York  City 

The  immigrant  work  of  the  Woman's  Board  of 
Home  Missions  is  principally  for  Italians  and 
Bohemians,  and  for  the  mixed  foreign  popula- 


MISSIONARY    SOCIETIES    171 

tion  of  Chicago.  An  advance  step  has  been  taken 
the  past  year  by  placing  a  missionary  at  ElHs 
Island  for  special  service  among  Bohemian, 
Slovak,  and  Polish  immigrants. 

The  Emily  Yale  schools  of  the  Woman's  Board 
of  Home  Missions  are  located  in  the  most 
crowded  districts  of  Chicago,  and  too  much  can- 
not be  said  regarding  the  difficulties  and  successes 
of  this  work.  In  Baltimore,  interesting  and  suc- 
cessful work  is  carried  on  among  the  Bohemians. 
In  West  Virginia,  work  is  maintained  among  the 
Hungarians,  and  foreigners  in  Wisconsin  and 
other  far-away  Western  States  are  reached  by  the 
faithful  workers  supported  by  this  Society. 


PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH  OF 
AMERICA 

WOMAN'S    AUXILIARY    TO    THE   BOARD    OF 
MISSIONS 

Sec,  Miss  Julia  C.  Emery,  281  Fourth  Avenue,  New 
York  City 

The  missionary  of  this  church  at  Ellis  Island, 
and  other  lines  of  immigrant  work,  are  supported 
by  local  dioceses  in  their  immediate  vicinity. 
The  general  Missionary  Board  of  the  church 
maintains  special  work  among  Swedes  in  various 
parts  of  the  country,  and  receives  in  this  loyal  sup- 
port and  assistance  from  the  Woman's  Auxiliary. 


172     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

REFORMED  CHURCH  OF  AMERICA 

WOMEN'S   EXECUTIVE   COMMITTEE  OF   THE 
BOARD   OF  DOMESTIC  MISSIONS 

Cor.  Sec,  Mrs.  John  S.  Allen,  25  E.  Twenty-second 
Street,  New  York  City 

The  work  of  this  Society  for  our  aUen  popula- 
tion is  chiefly  devoted  to  aiding  needy  churches 
among  the  Hollanders  and  Germans.  Parson- 
ages and  church  buildings  are  repaired  and  fur- 
nished, and  assistance  given  in  the  payment  of 
salaries  of  missionaries  and  teachers.  A  single 
paragraph  from  a  leaflet  sent  out  by  the  Board  of 
Domestic  Missions  bears  eloquent  testimony  to 
the  results  of  the  work. 

"Some  of  the  prairie  churches  of  our  planting 
give  to-day  more  money  to  missions  than  many  of 
the  larger  churches  at  home.  In  a  little  town  in 
Michigan,  one  Holland  church  that  spends  $2100 
for  its  own  support  gave  last  year  about  $3000 
for  Missions,  Home  and  Foreign." 


APPENDIX 

The  Appendix  is  made  to  correspond  with 
each  chapter  of  the  book,  so  that  the  supplemen- 
tary matter  can  readily  be  found.  In  order  not 
to  interfere  with  the  logical  treatment  of  the  sub- 
ject, it  was  deemed  advisable  to  place  in  the 
Appendix  the  special  material  adapted  for  use 
in  women's  meetings,  in  the  preparation  of  pro- 
grams, and  for  purposes  of  study.  This  method 
makes  the  volume  more  interesting  to  the  general 
reader. 

Short  sketches,  suitable  for  reading  in  mis- 
sionary meetings,  form  a  feature  of  the  Appen- 
dix material.  It  is  the  hope  of  the  author  that 
the  book  may  awaken  thousands  of  American 
Protestant  women  to  the  vital  issues  of  the  pro- 
foundest  problem  which  our  country  has  to  deal 
with. 


TABLE  I 
Racial  Elements  of  the  total  Immigration  for  1905 

Italians    (south)...  186,390    Lithuanians    18,604 

Hebrews   129,910    Finnish    17,012 

Poles    102,137    Scotch    16,144 

Germans   82,360    Ruthenians    14.473 

Scandinavians  ....  62,284    Greeks    12,144 

Irish    54,266  Bohemians  and  Mo- 
Slovaks  52,368        ravians  II.757 

English   50,865     French    ii,347 

Magyars    (Hunga-                   Japanese   11,021 

rians)    46,030    All  others 72,353 

Italians  (north)   . .  39,930  

Croatians  and 

Slovenians   35,i04        Total   1,026,499 

THE  INCOMING  MILLIONS 
(Quotable  Paragraphs) 

We  may  well  ask  whether  this  insweeping 
immigration  is  to  foreignize  us,  or  we  are  to 
Americanize  it.  Our  safety  demands  the  assimi- 
lation of  these  strange  populations,  and  the 
process  of  assimilation  becomes  slower  and  more 
difficult  as  the  proportion  of  foreigners  increases. 
— Josiah  Strong. 

The  great  cause  of  immigration  is,  after  all, 
that  the  immigrants  propose  to  better  themselves 
in  this  country.     They  come  here  not  because 


APPENDIX  — I 


175 


TABLE  II 

Number  of  Immigrants  Arrived  in  the  United  States 
EACH  Year  from  1820  to  1905,  both  Inclusive  " 


Period 


Year  ending  Sept.  30 — 

1820 

1821 

1822 

1823 

1824 

1825 

1820 

1827 

1828 

1829 

1830 

1831 

Oct.  I,  1831,  to  Dec.  31 

1832 

Year  ending  Dec.  31— 

1833 

1834 

i8?5 ..•■ 

1836 , 

1837 

1838 

1839 

1840 

1841 

1842 

Jan.  I  to  Sept.  30,  1843. 
Year  ending  Sept.  30— 

1844 

1845 

1846 

1847 


Number 


1849 

1850 

Oct.  I  to  Dec.  31,  1850  . 
Year  ending  Dec.  31 — 

1851 

1852 

1853 

1854 

i8s5 

1856 

Jan  I  to  June  30,  1857. . 
Year  ending  June  30— 


1859. 
i860. 


8.385 
9,127 
6,911 
6.354 
7,912 
10,199 
10,837 
18,875 
27,382 
22,520 
23,322 
22,633 

60,482 

58,640 
65.365 
45374 
76,242 
79- 340 
38,914 
68,069 
84,066 
80,289 
104,565 
52.496 

78.6.5 
'14  371 
154,416 
234,968 
226  527 

29'1.C2d 

310,004 

59.976 

379  466 
371  603 
368  645 
427  833 
200  877 
195  8?7 

112, 12^ 

191,942 
129,571 
133.143 


Period 


Year  ending  June  30— 


1862. 
1863. 
1864. 
1865 
1866. 
1867. 


1869.. 

1870. 

1871. 

1872. 

1873- 

1874- 

1875. 

1876. 

1877. 

1878. 

1879. 

1880 

1881. 

1883. 

1883 

1884. 

iSSq. 

1886 

1887. 


1890 


1893- 
1894. 
1895, 
1896. 
i8s)7. 
1898. 
1899, 
1900. 
1901. 
'903. 
1903. 
1904 
1905 


Number 


142,877 
72.183 
132,925 
191,114 
180.339 

332.577 
303,104 
282,189 
352.768 
387.203 
321.350 
404,806 
459.803 
313.339 
227.498 
169,986 
141.857 
138,469 
177,826 
457.257 
669.431 
788,993 
603  322 
518,592 
395.346 
334.203 
490,109 
546,889 
444.427 
455  302 
560319 
579.663 

439.730 
285  631 
258,536 
343,267 
230  832 
229,299 
3". 715 
448.57» 
487,918 
648  743 
857,046 
812  870 
1,026  499 


«  From  Annual  Report  of  Commissioner  General  of  Immigra 
tion  for  1905.     Immigration  for  1906   June  30,  1,100,735. 


176     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

they  love  us,  or  because  we  love  them.  They 
come  here  because  they  can  do  themselves  good, 
not  because  they  can  do  us  good. — A.  F.  Sclujuf- 
Her,  D.  D. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  PATRIOT'S  VIEW 

Our  patriot  stands  at  Castle  Garden  and  wit- 
nesses the  procession  of  foreign  peoples  as  they 
begin  our  American  life.  His  breast  swells  with 
pride  as  he  realizes  the  broadness  of  the  founda- 
tion upon  which  the  nation  is  built.  But  he  can- 
not help  asking  himself  the  questions,  What  will 
become  of  them,  if  they  do  not  rapidly  become 
Americanized?  What  will  become  of  the  nation 
if  they  are  not  promptly  assimilated?  Will  its 
liberality  prove  its  menace?  Will  its  asylum 
mean  that  it  may  yet  be  harboring  madness? 
This  is  certain,  that  only  as  the  world's  Christ  and 
his  Christianity  dominate,  mould,  and  ornament 
the  motley  life  of  this  country  can  there  be  safety 
for  the  nation  and  a  homogeneous  civilization  for 
its  fast  increasing  millions.  This  is  the  Christian's 
view,  of  course.  But  this  is  also  the  patriot's 
view.  In  this  regard  there  must  be  a  compact  be- 
tween the  two  which  cannot  be  broken. 

Into  every  avenue  of  our  American  life  let  this 
gospel  go.  Oases  will  not  do.  Special  cultiva- 
tion of  large  spiritual  tracts  will  not  do.  It  must 
be  the  whole  nation  for  Christ.  We  must  cease 
dividing  up  large  cities  into  sections  and  labelling 
them  the  Jewish  quarter,  the  Latin  quarter,  the 


APPENDIX  — I  1V7 

Bohemian  quarter,  the  Chinese  quarter.  We 
must  turn  them  into  an  American  Christian  whole. 
The  ideals  of  our  religion  are  the  ideals  for  all 
nations  and  for  all  time.  We  have  no  business 
with  anything  but  a  universal  religion.  Having 
that  we  must  extend  its  benign  power  among 
all  classes  of  our  population  until  the  rallying 
cry,  "America  for  Christ,"  shall  be  met  by  the 
answering  paean,  "America  has  become  Christ's." 
—W.  H.  G.  Temple,  D.  D. 

PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT'S  WORDS 

The  immigrant  comes  here  almost  unprotected ; 
he  does  not,  as  a  rule,  know  our  language ;  he  is 
wholly  unfamiliar  with  our  institutions,  our  cus- 
toms, our  habits  of  life  and  ways  of  thought,  and 
there  are,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  great  numbers  of 
evil  and  wicked  persons  who  hope  to  make  their 
livelihood  by  preying  on  him.  No  greater  work 
can  be  done  by  a  philanthropic  or  religious  society 
than  to  stretch  out  the  helping  hand  to  the  man 
and  the  woman  who  come  here  to  this  country  to 
become  citizens  and  the  parents  of  citizens,  and 
therefore  to  do  their  part  in  making  up,  for  weal 
or  for  woe,  the  future  of  our  land.  If  we  do  not 
take  care  of  them,  if  we  do  not  try  to  uplift  them, 
then  as  sure  as  fate  our  own  children  will  pay 
the  penalty. — President  Roosevelt,  in  address  be- 
fore the  American  Tract  Society. 


178     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 


EVADING  THE    IMMIGRANT   INSPECTORS 

(The  following,  upon  this  suhject,  was  written 
from  personal  observation  and  is  very  interest- 
ing-) 

"One  day  I  saw  fourteen  immigrants  going  into  a 
house  at  No.  ii  Cerca  San  Lorenzo,  in  the  City  of 
Mexico.  I  followed  them  into  a  back  room  where  two 
men  were  sleeping.  It  was  expected  that  all  this  com- 
pany should  live  in  that  one  apartment.  I  asked  to  see 
their  papers  and  ascertained  that  all  had  been  sent  there 
by  the  Austro-American  Steamship  Company,  which 
operates  a  line  of  vessels  between  Trieste  and  Vera 
Cruz.  They  had  come  on  the  steamer  Fredda,  the  first 
ship  of  the  line  to  reach  Mexico. 

"Of  the  fourteen  four  were  Russians,  one  was  a 
Montenegrin,  and  the  rest  were  Austrians.  Seven  said 
they  were  going  to  Chicago ;  four  to  Ansonia ;  and  the 
others  did  not  know  where  they  were  going  except  that 
they  intended  to  get  into  the  United  States.  None  of 
them  had  any  money,  and  they  said  they  had  had  noth- 
ing to  eat.  One  man  was  crippled.  The  Montenegrin 
was  crazy  and  two  of  the  Russians  had  trachoma.  I 
asked  the  one  from  Montenegro  some  questions  and  he 
became  violent.     He  had  been  rejected  at  Ellis  Island. 

"I  heard  voices  upstairs,  and  in  that  house  and  in  the 
one  connected  with  it,  No.  9,  I  found  112  immigrants, 
all  in  about  the  same  condition.  One-third  of  the  num- 
ber were  women  and  children. 

"The  attention  of  the  agent  of  the  Austro-American 
line  in  the  city  was  called  to  the  fourteen,  and  he  denied 
all  knowledge  of  them.  This  business  is  done  through 
immigration  agents  who  have  no  connection  with  the 
steamship  companies.  The  steamship  agents,  however, 
saw  that  the  fourteen  men  got  employment  on  planta- 
tions near  the  city. 

"I  returned  later  to  the  house  and  found  that  nearly 
all  the  immigrants  had  disappeared.  They  had  been 
taken  to  other  boarding  houses  in  the  city  to  which  it 
was  impossible  to  trace  them.  They  got  into  the  United 
States  from  El  Paso  and  Larada,  crossing  on  street 
cars.  They  take  no  baggage  with  them,  for  whatever 
they    have    is  shipped  after  them  in    order    to    avoid 


APPENDIX  — II  n9 

suspicion.  At  some  places  they  cross  the  Rio  Grande 
in  boats,  and  there  are  places  where  they  can  wade  the 
shallows. 

"Not  only  have  I  seen  among  these  immigrants  cases 
of  favus  (an  infectious  disease  of  the  scalp),  and  of 
trachoma  (a  chronic  ailment  of  the  eyes),  but  also  mild 
cases  of  leprosy.  There  were  two  or  three  Syrians 
whom  I  saw  who  had  leperoid,  and  they  bore  on  their 
bodies  traces  of  the  treatment  which  they  had  received 
for  the  disease. 

"It  is  easy  for  the  immigrants  to  get  into  Mexico, 
for  the  reason  that  the  Government  there  is  offering 
every  inducement  for  colonization.  The  Italian  line 
known  as  La  Veloce  has  a  concession  by  which  it  prom- 
ises to  land  a  certain  number  of  immigrants  in  Mexico 
in  the  course  of  a  year." — Assembly  Herald. 


II 
IMMIGRATION   AND   THE   SOUTH 

The  subject  of  immigration,  says  a  Southern 
woman,  is  the  Hvest  of  issues  in  the  South  to-day, 
because  of  the  vigorous  efforts  made  to  induce 
immigrants  to  go  there.  These  efforts  are  all 
backed  by  financial  interests.  The  Christian  peo- 
ple of  the  South,  however,  see  another  side  to  it, 
and  are  filled  with  anxiety.  The  Christian  women 
are  awake  to  the  situation,  and  while  they  raise 
a  serious  question  as  to  the  wisdom  of  bringing  in 
an  alien  population  to  complicate  their  labor  and 
race  problem,  they  are  also  active  in  seeking  to 
evangelize  the  foreigners  who  come.  We  give 
the  views  of  two  writers  in  Our  Homes,  the  organ 
of  the  Woman's  Home  Mission  Society  of  the 


180     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

Methodist  Church  South.     Miss  Helm,  the  editor, 
says : 

The  colonization  idea,  though  it  relieves  to  that  ex- 
tent the  overcrowded  cities,  has  not  proven  a  perfect 
plan  for  Americanizing  the  foreigner.  It  is  only 
another  form  of  segregation  which  helps  to  keep  them 
more  loyal  to  their  native  land,  to  retain  its  language, 
its  customs,  and  its  standards.  The  Northwest  has 
populous  colonies  of  foreigners  who,  though  living  there 
for  years,  are  untouched  by  American  ideas  and  institu- 
tions. Such  conditions  obtain  in  a  more  or  less  degree 
in  large  and  small  colonies.  Why  try  to  fill  up  our 
fine  farming  and  lumbering  sections  with  foreigners 
when  our  own  people  are  increasing  so  rapidly  and 
should  be  encouraged  to  "go  up  and  possess"  their  own 
land? 

A  crisis  replete  with  dangerous  elements,  is  now 
presented  to  the  South,  involving  its  future,  its  very 
existence  as  a  people.  Over-haste  of  action,  a  lack  of 
calm  preparedness  that  will  control  and  regulate,  will 
prove  destructive.  Let  us  face  the  question  of  opening 
our  gates  to  the  flood  tide  of  immigrants  from  Southern 
Europe,  and  ere  we  hasten  its  rush  calculate  all  that  it 
may  involve,  lest  it  prove,  instead  of  an  irrigating  canal, 
a  destructive  force  that  will  sweep  away  some  things  we 
hold  dearest. 

Mrs.  R.  W.  Macdonell  says :  The  type  of  immigrant 
determines  the  character  of  the  problem.  If  all  were 
like  such  men  as  Jacob  Riis  and  Carl  Schurz,  well  might 
our  immigrant  agencies  receive  the  praise  and  thanks  of 
all  native  Americans.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  many 
are  illiterates  from  Latin  America  and  Southern  Europe 
whose  sense  of  personal  and  political  right  has  been 
blunted  by  the  domination  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  Our  destiny  at  the  South  is  being  marked  out 
by  the  influx  of  the  Italian,  the  Cuban,  and  the  Mexican. 
In  Louisiana  there  are  twenty  parishes  where  there  is 
not  a  single  Protestant  church ;  in  Tampa  these  for- 
eigners outnumber  our  native  population,  while  at  Pen- 
sacola.  Galveston,  and  Houston,  as  well  as  New  Orleans, 
they  come  in  ever-increasing  numbers.  The  form  our 
future  civilization  will  take  depends  upon  the  activity 
of  the  Protestant  Church  of  the  present.  The  question, 
then,  before  the  Protestants  of  to-day  is:  "Shall  we 
leave  this  power  in  the  hands  of  ignorance  and  super- 


APPENDIX  — II  181 

stition,  or  shall  we  with  open  Bible  and  Christian  edu- 
cation develop  a  people  of  intelligence  and  virtue,  and 
thus  save  our  country  from  despotism,  corruption,  and 
anarchy?" 

THE  WORKER'S  VIEW 

On  the  more  hopeful  side,  it  is  just  to  present 
also  the  view  of  a  missionary  teacher  who  is  en- 
gaged in  settling  the  problem  by  making  Ameri- 
cans and  Christians  of  the  children.  Miss  Anna 
M.  Browne  writes : 

"Little  Italy,"  though  it  ranks,  in  the  minds  of  its 
inhabitants,  among  the  more  important  places  of  the 
world,  is  not  marked  on  the  map  but  is  included  in  that 
small  but  very  cosmopolitan  suburb  of  Tampa,  Fla., 
called  Ybor  City. 

Its  inhabitants  are  immigrants  for  the  most  part  from 
Sicily,  and  are  of  the  best  class  of  Sicilians — thrifty, 
industrious,  and  honest — drawn  to  this  free  land  by  the 
desire  to  possess  homes  of  their  own  and  to  educate 
their  children.  Already  "Little  Italy"  is  a  land  of 
homes,  because  so  fast  as  its  people  can  save  a  little 
money  they  invest  it  in  a  plot  of  ground  on  which  a 
cottage  is  built  and  paid  for  by  the  week  or  month. 
Many  of  the  people  are  in  business  for  themselves,  but 
many  more  work  in  the  numerous  cigar  factories  here. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that,  as  in  many  other  mill  towns, 
many  of  the  mothers  and  some  of  the  children  have 
gone  into  the  factories  to  help  maintain  the  family  and 
pay  for  the  home.  The  majority,  however,  are  anxious 
for  their  children  to  have  every  educational  advantage 
and  to  advance  farther  into  the  intellectual  and  business 
world  than  they  themselves  have  been  able  to  go. 

THE   QUESTION   OF   RESTRICTION 

SOME  VARYING  VIEWS 

There  are  two  classes  who  would  pass  upon 
the  immigration  question.  One  says,  "Close  the 
doors  and  let  in  nobody;"  and  the  other  says, 


182     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

"Open  wide  the  doors  and  let  in  everybody."  I 
am  in  sympathy  with  neither  of  these  classes. 
There  is  a  happy  middle  path — a  path  of  discern- 
ment and  judgment. — Commissioner  Robert 
Watchorn. 

Just  as  a  body  cannot  with  safety  accept 
nourishment  any  faster  than  it  is  capable  of  as- 
similating it,  so  a  state  cannot  accept  an  excessive 
influx  of  people  without  serious  injury. — Prof. 
H.  H.  Boyesen. 

It  seems  to  me  our  only  concern  about  immi- 
gration should  be  as  to  its  character.  We  do  not 
want  Europe's  criminals  or  paupers.  The  time  to 
make  selection  is  in  Europe,  prior  to  embarka- 
tion.— U.  S.  Senator  Hanshrough. 

As  for  immigrants,  we  cannot  have  too  many 
of  the  right  kind,  and  we  should  have  none  of  the 
wrong  kind.  I  will  go  as  far  as  any  in  regard  to 
restricting  undesirable  immigration.  I  do  not 
think  that  any  immigrant  who  will  lower  the 
standard  of  life  among  our  people  should  be  ad- 
mitted.— President  Roosevelt. 

Let  our  Republic,  in  its  crowded  and  hazard- 
ous future,  adopt  these  watchwords,  to  be  made 
good  all  along  our  oceanic  and  continental  bor- 
ders :  "Welcome  for  the  worthy,  protection  for  the 
patriotic,  but  no  shelter  in  America  for  those  who 
would  destroy  the  American  shelter  itself." — 
Joseph  Cook. 


APPENDIX  — II  183 

If  that  man  who  careth  not  for  his  own  house- 
hold is  worse  than  an  infidel,  the  nation  which 
permits  its  institutions  to  be  endangered  by  any 
cause  that  can  fairly  be  removed,  is  guilty,  not  less 
in  Christian  than  in  natural  law.  Charity  begins 
at  home ;  and  while  the  people  of  the  United 
States  have  gladly  offered  an  asylum  to  millions 
upon  millions  of  the  distressed  and  unfortunate 
of  other  lands  and  climes,  they  have  no  right  to 
carry  their  hospitality  one  step  beyond  the  line 
where  American  institutions,  the  American  rate 
of  wages,  the  American  standard  of  living  are 
brought  into  serious  peril.  Our  highest  duty  to 
charity  and  to  humanity  is  to  make  this  great  ex- 
periment here,  of  free  lazvs  and  educated  labor, 
the  most  triumphant  success  that  can  possibly  be 
attained.  In  this  way  we  shall  do  far  more  for 
Europe  than  by  allowing  its  slums  and  its  vast 
stagnant  reservoirs  of  degraded  peasantry  to  be 
drained  off  upon  our  soil. — General  Francis  A. 
Walker. 

THE  OTHER  SIDE 

Who  are  we  that  we  should  bar  out  any  honest, 
capable  man  who  wishes  to  come  to  our  shores? 
You  do  not  have  to  go  very  far  back  in  the  family 
line  of  any  of  us  to  find  an  immigrant.  Scratch 
an  American  and  you  find  a  foreigner.  Of 
course  there  is  no  difference  of  opinion  about  the 
desirability  of  excluding  the  diseased,  the  crimi- 
nal, the  imbecile,  and  the  pauper  classes.  But  I 
maintain  that  if  there  is  anything  in  our  boasted 


184     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

doctrine  of  human  brotherhood  it  means  that  any 
man  who  is  sound  in  mind  and  body,  who  is  able 
to  take  care  of  himself,  and  is  willing  to  behave 
himself,  has  a  right  to  go  to  any  part  of  the  world 
he  pleases  without  let  or  hindrance. — F.  M. 
Goodchild,  D.  D. 

THE  READING  AND  MONEY  TESTS 
The  following  were  in  the  Immigration  Bill 
introduced  into  Congress  in  the  session  1905-06. 
Both  sections  were  stricken  out  by  amendment. 
Whether  such  tests  should  be  made  a  part  of  the 
law  is  an  interesting  subject  for  discussion. 

Sec.  38.  That  no  alien  immigrant  over  sixteen  years 
of  age  physically  capable  of  reading  shall  be  admitted 
to  the  United  States  until  he  has  proved  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  proper  inspection  officers  that  he  can  read 
English  or  some  other  tongue  .  .  .  provided  that  an 
admissible  alien  over  sixteen,  or  a  person  now  or  here- 
after in  the  United  States  of  like  age,  may  bring  in  or 
send  for  his  wife,  mother,  affianced  wife,  or  father  over 
fifty-five,  if  they  are  otherwise  admissible,  whether  able 
to  read  or  write  or  not. 

Sec.  39.  That  every  male  alien  immigrant  over  sixteen 
shall  be  deemed  likely  to  become  a  public  charge  unless 
he  shows  to  the  proper  immigration  officials  that  he  has 
in  his  possession  at  the  time  of  inspection  money  to  the 
equivalent  of  $25,  or  that  the  head  of  his  family  enter- 
ing with  him  so  holds  that  amount  to  his  account. 
Every  female  alien  must  have  $15. 

PROPOSED  LEGISLATION 

A  plan  that  meets  with  the  general  approval  of 
immigration  experts  is  to  establish  inspection  sta- 
tions abroad,  and  make  these  exclusive  points  of 
immigrant  embarkation  for  the  United   States. 


APPENDIX  — II  185 

Suppose  the  ports  selected  were  Hamburg, 
Bremen,  Stettin,  Rotterdam,  Antwerp,  London, 
Southampton,  Liverpool,  Havre,  St.  Nazaire, 
Marseilles,  Fiume,  Trieste,  Naples,  Genoa,  and 
Odessa.  At  each  of  these  ports  should  be  located 
an  immigrant  station,  similar,  in  a  general  way,  to 
the  immigrant  stations  at  our  large  Atlantic  ports 
to-day,  and  it  should  be  made  the  duty  of  the 
resident  commissioners,  with  their  staffs  of  in- 
spectors and  medical  attaches,  to  examine  care- 
fully and  minutely  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
of  alien  nationality  who  applies  for  passage  to  the 
United  States.  Successful  applicants  should  be 
given  a  certificate  which  alone  would  enable  them 
to  land  at  the  port  of  destination;  those  unsuc- 
cessful should  be  made  to  understand  then  and 
there  that,  in  their  present  state  at  least,  there  is 
no  chance  for  them  to  carry  out  their  intention 
of  migration,  and  that  the  best  thing  for  them  to 
do  is  to  return  to  their  homes. 

This  radical  plan  proposes  to  transfer  Ellis 
Island,  in  effect,  to  a  score  of  points  in  Europe, 
and  do  the  sifting  before  the  starting.  Then  only 
the  desirable  portion  would  get  here,  and  the 
"tragedy  of  the  excluded"  would  be  prevented. 
The  evil  of  solicitation  could  also  be  checked  by 
this  method.  The  inspectors  should  be  on  the 
civil  service  basis,  and  the  department  be  kept 
out  of  politics.  This  plan  met  with  the  approval 
of  the  Immigration  Conference  held  in  New  York 
in  December,  1905. 


186     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

In  the  Immigration  Bill  discussed  by  the  last 
Congress  and  left  in  conference  at  the  close  of 
the  session  there  was  a  new  section  establishing 
a  Bureau  of  Information,  through  which  intend- 
ing immigrants  should  be  posted  concerning  oar 
laws,  the  places  where  workers  are  needed,  rates 
of  wages,  cost  of  living,  and  other  information 
that  would  tend  to  keep  the  undesirable  from 
starting,  and  distribute  those  who  come. 

A  recommendation  of  the  Immigration  Con- 
ference proposes  the  establishment  of  an  Immi- 
gration Commission,  to  be  appointed  by  the 
President,  to  investigate  the  whole  subject  of  im- 
migration and  report  to  Congress.  This  is  a  wise 
proposal.  What  all  should  desire,  is  the  utmost 
light  upon  a  matter  that  vitally  concerns  our  coun- 
try, and  its  fullest  discussion. 

In  the  same  line  is  Commissioner  Sargent's 
recommendation  that  an  international  conference 
of  immigration  experts  be  arranged  for.  It  would 
be  most  desirable  to  secure  united  action.  If  this 
should  not  result,  an  exchange  of  views  would  be 
of  value. 

THE  MANIFEST 

Under  the  Law  of  1903,  the  shipmaster  must 
obtain  from  each  intending  immigrant  a  sworn 
manifest,  to  be  delivered  to  the  government  offi- 
cers at  the  port  of  entry.     This  paper  must  state : 

The  full  name,  age  and  sex ;  whether  married  or 
single; the  calling  or  occupation ;  whether  able  to  read  or 
write;  the  nationality;  the  race;  the  last  residence;  the 


APPENDIX  — II  187 

seaport  landing  in  the  United  States;  the  final  destina- 
tion, if  any,  beyond  the  port  of  landing ;  whether  having 
a  ticket  through  to  such  final  destination;  whether  the 
alien  has  paid  his  own  passage  or  whether  it  has  been 
paid  by  any  other  person  or  by  any  corporation,  society, 
municipality,  or  government,  and  if  so,  by  whom ; 
whether  in  possession  of  thirty  dollars,  and  if  less,  how 
much;  whether  going  to  join  a  relative  or  friend,  and  if 
so,  what  relative  or  friend,  and  his  name  and  complete 
address ;  whether  ever  before  in  the  United  States,  and 
if  so,  when  and  where ;  whether  ever  in  prison  or  alms- 
house or  an  institution  or  hospital  for  the  care  and  treat- 
ment of  the  insane  or  supported  by  charity ;  whether  a 
polygamist ;  whether  an  anarchist ;  whether  coming  by 
reason  of  any  offer,  solicitation,  promise,  or  agreement, 
expressed  or  implied,  to  perform  labor  in  the  United 
States,  and  what  is  the  alien's  condition  of  health, 
mental  and  physical,  and  whether  deformed  or  crippled, 
and  if  so,  for  how  long  and  from  what  cause. 

The  inspector  has  this  manifest  when  the  immi- 
grant comes  before  him,  and  compares  the  an- 
swers given  to  his  questions  with  those  on  the 
paper.  Wide  discrepancies  would  cause  special 
examination. 

THE  CHINESE  EXCLUSION  LAW 
In  our  immigration  laws  we  have  made  one 
discrimination,  which  is  un-American  and  unjust. 
The  laws  should  be  uniform.  The  right  to  shut 
out  the  Chinese  coolies  is  not  questioned;  but  if 
these  be  debarred,  why  not  debar  the  illiterate 
and  unskilled  laboring  class  that  comes  from  Ire- 
land, Italy,  and  Austria-Hungary?  The  Chinese 
certainly  can  fill  a  place  in  our  industries  which 
the  other  races  do  not  fill  equally  well.  Their 
presence  in  the  kitchen  would  tend  to  alleviate 
domestic  conditions  that  are  responsible  in  large 


188     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

measure  for  the  breaking  up  of  American  home 
life.  It  is  a  ludicrous  error  to  suppose  that  all 
the  Chinese  who  come  to  America  are  laundry- 
men  at  home.  Let  Mrs.  L.  S.  Baldwin,  a  re- 
turned missionary  who  labored  in  China  eighteen 
years  and  knows  the  people  she  pleads  for,  bear 
her  witness : 

"The  Chinese  are  exactly  the  same  class  as  the 
immigrants  from  other  lands.  The  needy  poor, 
with  few  exceptions,  must  ever  be  the  immigrant 
class.  Those  who  come  to  us  across  the  Pacific 
are  largely  from  the  respectable  farming  class, 
who  fall  into  laundry  work,  shoemaking,  etc.,  be- 
cause these  branches  of  industry  are  chiefly  open 
to  them.  I  have  no  fear  of  the  Chinese  immi- 
grants suffering  in  comparison  with  those  who 
come  across  the  Atlantic.  It  is  not  the  Chinaman 
who  is  too  lazy  to  work,  and  goes  to  the  alms- 
house or  jail.  It  is  not  he  who  reels  through  our 
streets,  defies  our  Sabbath  laws,  deluges  our  coun- 
try with  beer,  and  opposes  all  work  for  temper- 
ance and  the  salvation  of  our  sons  from  the  liquor 
curse.  It  is  not  the  man  from  across  the  Pacific 
who  commits  the  fearful  crimes,  and  who  is  long- 
ing to  put  his  hand  to  our  political  wheel  and  rule 
the  United  States.  There  are  no  healthier  immi- 
grants coming  to  this  country.  It  is  with  diffi- 
culty, and  only  under  pressure  of  necessity  they 
are  induced  to  leave  China,  so  that  the  bugbear 
of  millions  of  coolies  overrunning  America  is 
absurd." 


APPENDIX  — III  189 

THE  RIGHT  TO  LEGISLATE 

One  point  should  be  kept  clear,  that  Americans 
have  sacred  rights,  civil  and  religious,  with  which 
aliens  should  not  be  permitted  to  interfere;  and 
that  these  rights  include  all  proper  and  necessary 
legislation  for  the  preservation  of  the  liberties, 
laws,  institutions,  and  principles  established  by 
the  founders  of  the  Republic,  together  with  those 
rights  of  citizenship  guaranteed  under  the  consti- 
tution. If  restriction  of  immigration  becomes 
necessary  in  order  to  safeguard  America,  the 
American  people  have  a  clear  right  to  pass  re- 
strictive or  even  prohibitory  laws.  In  other 
words,  America  does  not  belong  equally  to  every- 
body. The  American  has  rights  which  the  alien 
must  become  American  to  acquire. — From  Aliens 
or  Americans f 


III 

LOCAL  ITALIANS  PROSPERING 

To  indicate  how  the  Italians  are  gaining  place 
everywhere,  the  author  chanced  recently  to  pick 
up  a  local  paper  at  a  hotel  in  Saratoga  Springs, 
and  his  eye  fell  upon  this  news  from  the  village 
of  Mechanicville,  in  Saratoga  County.  The  item 
tells  a  story  of  Americanization : 

"John  Fehily  has  sold  his  residence  on  Warsaw 
avenue  to  Victor  Anziano  for  $1,250.     The  property  on 


190    THE   INCOMING   MILLIONS 

Warsaw  avenue  is  now  owned  almost  wholly  by  Italians 
and  several  new  buildings  have  been  erected  there  this 
season.  The  Wilbur  houses  on  Warsaw  avenue  are  all 
occupied  by  Italians,  and  a  number  of  real  estate  trans- 
fers have  been  made.  More  are  said  to  be  pending  of 
property  on  Saratoga  avenue,  west  of  Viall  avenue. 
John  Salvatore  recently  purchased  a  house  and  lot  of 
Hugh  Smith  on  that  street. 

"Mechanicville  seems  to  have  been  particularly 
fortunate  in  its  Italian  population.  As  a  class  they  are 
industrious  and  saving.  The  tax  books  have  more 
Italian  names  every  year,  which  proves  they  are  acquir- 
ing property.  Besides,  they  send  thousands  of  dollars 
to  Italy  to  relatives  every  month." 

Another  Picture 

On  the  reverse  side,  the  author  knows  that  near 
another  beautiful  village  in  the  same  county  there 
is  an  Italian  colony  of  the  worst  class,  composed 
of  Sicilians  who  live  according  to  the  lowest 
standards.  The  men  simply  herd  together,  and 
they  not  only  fight  among  themselves,  but  they  are 
insulting  to  American  women,  and  have  kept  the 
people  in  a  state  of  terrorization.  It  is  not  safe 
for  women  and  children  to  be  out  alone  at  night — 
or  by  day,  either,  for  that  matter — in  the  vicinity 
of  this  colony,  and  the  police  authorities  have 
proved  unable  to  cope  with  the  situation.  It  is 
intolerable  to  have  America  made  unsafe  for 
Americans  to  live  in  by  men  who  are  brought  in, 
most  of  them,  under  contract  in  violation  of  law, 
kept  here  simply  because  they  work  for  low 
wages,  and  then  permitted  to  have  things  their 
own  way. 


APPENDIX  — IV  191 


IV 


A  FOREIGN  AMERICAN  METROPOLIS 

In  New  York  City  already  the  foreign  men  of 
voting  age  outnumber  the  native  men  of  voting 
age  by  nearly  a  hundred  thousand.  There  never 
was  so  polyglot  a  population  in  any  city  on  the 
face  of  the  earth  before.  In  a  single  block  that 
shelters  more  than  four  thousand  people,  eighteen 
languages  are  spoken.  In  Public  School  No.  29, 
twenty-six  nationalities  are  represented  among  the 
pupils.  A  New  York  bachelor  was  telling  not 
long  ago  how  diverse  his  associations  were.  He 
said  that  his  washerwoman  was  a  Chinaman,  his 
tailor  a  Jew,  he  breakfasts  in  an  American  res- 
taurant, he  lunches  in  a  German  eating  house,  he 
dines  in  a  French  hotel,  he  buys  his  peanuts  of 
one  Greek  and  his  flowers  of  another  Greek,  his 
physician  is  an  Englishman,  his  favorite  preacher 
a  Scotchman.  Some  one  asked  him  where  the 
Irish  came  in,  and  he  said  promptly,  "There  are 
two  of  him.  One  owns  the  house  I  live  in,  and 
the  other  is  the  policeman  on  the  beat."  Tre- 
mendous diversity  of  races !  A  very  babel  of 
tongues !  New  York  is  the  meeting  place  of  the 
nations.  And  it  is  steadily  becoming  more  so. 
The  Jews  admitted  at  Ellis  Island  during  the  past 
five  years  outnumbered  all  the  communicants  in 
the  Protestant  churches  in  Greater  New  York. 
Twelve  thousand  new  inhabitants  take  up  their 


192     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

residence  in  New  York  every  month.  And  they 
multiply  naturally.  Out  of  a  hundred  thousand 
births  in  New  York  in  the  year  1904  about  sixty 
thousand  were  on  Manhattan  Island.  Of  that 
sixty  thousand  less  than  twelve  thousand  were 
American  babies.  There  were  as  many  little  Ital- 
ians born  as  there  were  Americans,  and  there 
were  more  Russian  and  Polish  Jew  babies  than 
Americans. — F.  M.  GoodchUd,  D.  D. 


TRAGEDIES  OF  IMMIGRATION 

Here  is  a  story  that  reveals  the  distressing  and 
killing  conditions  into  which  thousands  of  the 
immigrants  are  thrust  in  this  country.  It  should 
stir  womanly  pity  to  active  interest  in  abolishing 
the  sweatshops. 

The  tragedy  of  the  Kaplan  family,  a  member  of  which 
committed  suicide  about  two  weeks  ago  in  the  offices  of 
Die  Wahrheit,  on  the  East  Side,  appears  to  be  drawing 
to  a  close.  It  is  one  of  the  saddest  stories  that  has 
come  out  of  the  East  Side  in  a  long  time.  Like  many 
others,  it  has  had  its  beginning  and  will  probably  have 
its  end  as  a  result  of  the  heavy  hand  of  the  Czar  of 
Russia  and  his  agents. 

While  the  mother  and  father  of  young  Nathan  Kap- 
lan, who  shot  himself  in  the  newspaper  office,  are  starv- 
ing in  Russia,  his  sister  is  seemingly  starving  herself 
to  death  in  the  rear  room  of  a  tenement  house.  Since 
her  brother's  death,  not  knowing  how  it  may  be  with 
her  parents  in  Russia,  the  girl  has  slowly  pined  away. 
Apparently  she  wants  to  die.  Specifically  she  has  con- 
sumption. 


APPENDIX  — V  193 

The  Kaplans  lived  at  Bielostock  in  Russia.  Nathan 
Kaplan,  the  son,  fled  to  this  country  and  obtained  em- 
ployment. While  he  was  living  at  250  Madison  Street 
last  year  he  received  a  letter  from  his  parents,  telling 
him  that  the  Czar's  agents  had  seized  their  little 
property  and  that  they  were  in  dire  straits.  The  parents 
said  they  could  suffer  and  be  silent,  but  they  grieved 
for  and  feared  for  their  daughter  Jennie,  who  is  a 
particularly  beautiful  girl. 

Nathan  sent  them  all  the  money  he  could  raise,  and 
Jennie  came  to  this  country.  She  stayed  at  the  board- 
ing house  in  Madison  Street  with  her  brother  and  found 
employment  in  the  sweatshops.  She  had  done  little 
hard  labor  in  Russia,  where  her  parents,  previous  to  the 
confiscation  of  their  property,  had  been  fairly  well  off. 
The  atmosphere  and  environment  of  the  sweatshops 
ruined  the  girl's  health. 

She  worked  on,  however,  and  she  and  her  brother 
sent  their  little  savings  to  their  parents  in  Russia,  at 
the  same  time  putting  a  little  away  to  enable  the  father 
and  mother  to  join  them  in  a  land  where  they  could  be 
free  and  united.  Some  weeks  ago,  however,  the  girl's 
health  completely  broke  down  and  she  fell  back  upon 
her  brother's  support. 

Nathan  had  a  hard  time  of  it.  He  worked  day  and 
night,  but  what  he  made  was  not  sufficient  to  keep  him- 
self and  Jennie,  pay  doctor's  bills,  and  at  the  same  time 
relieve  the  homeless  ones  in  Russia.  About  two  weeks 
ago,  after  receiving  news  that  his  parents  were  starving, 
he  went  into  the  offices  of  Die  IVahrhcit,  laid  two  letters 
on  the  editor's  desk,  said  he  and  and  his  loved  ones  had 
been  crushed  by  the  hand  of  the  "Great  White"  Czar, 
then,  going  to  the  next  room,  he  shot  himself  through 
the  head. 

Since  then  the  girl  has  been  failing  rapidly.  She  re- 
fuses any  comfort,  will  not  eat,  declines  all  offers  of 
monetary  assistance,  and  sits  all  day  with  a  miniature 
of  her  brother  in  her  hand  looking  out  of  a  window. 
She  keeps  a  diary.     The  following  are  a  few  entries : 

April  3. — Slept  a  little,  but  was  restless  most  of  the 
time.     Had  no  food  to  eat  all  day. 

April  5. — I  am  discouraged,  and  I  wish  to  die. 

April  7. — Another  day  of  misery,  but  some  friends 
called  and  cheered  me  a  little. 

April  8. — I  feel  despondent  and  sick.  My  only  wish 
is  that  I  die  soon. 


194     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

When  asked  if  she  would  go  to  work  again  if  the 
opportunity  offered  she  replied : 

"Yes,  but  I  cannot  return  to  the  sweatshop.  It  would 
kill  me  just  the  same." 


AN  EVIL  THAT  WOMEN  MUST  ABOLISH 

The  source  of  the  following  article  we  do 
not  know,  but  we  do  know  that  the  reading  of  it 
should  open  many  eyes  to  existing  conditions 
that  ought  not  to  be  possible  in  this  nominally 
Christian  land.  What  can  you  do  to  help  put  an 
end  to  child  labor?     Read  and  ponder: 

Last  summer  some  Americans  travelling  in  Italy 
stopped  aghast  at  a  sight  that  met  them  on  the  outskirts 
of  Palestrina.  A  child  of  about  six  was  plodding 
steadily  between  a  small  quarry  and  an  unfinished 
house,  with  each  trip  bearing  on  her  head  a  large  stone 
for  the  builders.  These  stones  averaged  at  least  twenty- 
five  pounds  in  weight,  and  the  child  could  not  lift  them 
alone;  one  of  the  elders  busy  at  the  same  task  would 
poise  the  burden  for  her,  and  it  would  be  taken  off  at 
the  other  end.  The  face  under  the  stone  was  gravely 
uncomplaining;  already  the  back  showed  a  deep  in- 
curve. All  the  spring — the  elasticity  of  growth — seemed 
crushed  out  of  the  little  figure.  The  Americans  were 
horrified.  They  put  questions,  protested,  and  did  what 
they  could  to  get  the  burden  lifted.  Then  they  ex- 
claimed to  one  another:  "You  don't  see  such  things  in 
America !  Thank  God,  a  child  can't  be  treated  like 
that  at  home !" 

Not  long  ago  a  child  of  six  walked  down  Avenue  D, 
in  New  York  City,  carrying  on  her  head  a  load  of 
sweatshop  "pants" — they  are  not  trousers,  at  that  price 
— weighing  not  less  than  twenty-five  pounds.  She  had 
to  walk  several  blocks  with  it.  climb  four  flights  of 
stairs,  and  when  it  was  removed  her  work  was  only 
begun,  for  the  endless  buttons,  twelve  to  a  pair,  were 
to  be  sewed  on  by  the  brown  claws  that  gripped  the 
bundle.  She  passed  by  many  Americans  on  the  way. 
but  no  one  noticed,  no  one  was  horrified.  Several 
times   a   week   she   has  trudged   over   the   same   route, 


APPENDIX  — VI  195 

under  the  same  weight,  in  a  land  "where  a  child  can't 
be  treated  like  that"  without  incurring  public  indigna- 
tion. 

Do  we  have  to  go  abroad  before  we  can  see?  Pants 
on  Avenue  D  are  less  picturesque  than  stones  in  Pales- 
trina,  but  this  dead  weight  is  sagging  the  little  back 
down  just  as  effectually,  and  this  is  not  an  exceptional 
case.  We  have  laws  about  children's  work,  and  men 
who  enforce  them,  yet  all  through  the  tenement  dis- 
tricts and  factories  there  are  children  who  in  one  way 
or  another  carry  stones. 


VI 

CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE   ALIENS 
THE  RIGHT  ATTITUDE 

What  is  the  duty  of  the  American  churches 
toward  this  great  incoming  mass  of  peoples? 
What  ought  we  to  do  with  respect  to  work  among 
them?  First,  let  us  treat  them  sympathetically. 
Let  us  appreciate  the  good  which  they  have  done 
and  are  doing  for  this  country.  Let  us  not  under- 
estimate the  burden  and  the  difficulty  which  their 
coming  imposes  upon  the  English-speaking 
churches  of  our  land.  Let  us  not  exaggerate  the 
evils  which  they  bring.  Let  us  be  true  to  these 
peoples.  They  have  contributed  and  are  con- 
tributing to  the  wealth  of  this  country.  Let  us 
appreciate  that  which  they  have  given  to  the  in- 
tellectual life  and  the  art  life  of  America.  Let  us 
not  forget  what  they  have  contributed  to  our  own 
national  life. 

We  must  preach  the  gospel  to  these  people  in 


196     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

their  own  tongues.  I  yield  to  no  man  in  my  love 
for  the  tongue  of  my  native  land — America.  I 
love  its  literature,  secular  and  religious.  To  me, 
it  is  the  coming  tongue,  but  I  can  appreciate  the 
feeling  of  these  peoples  for  the  tongue  which 
they  first  learned  at  their  mother's  knee.  I  can 
never  forget  that  the  earliest  tones  which  I  heard 
were  the  tones  of  the  German  mother-tongue.  I 
well  recall  the  words  of  a  Boer  pastor — of  Pastor 
Meyring,  of  Johannesburg,  who,  in  speaking  of 
the  question  of  language  in  the  Transvaal,  said : 
"English  is,  of  course,  the  coming  language  of 
South  America,  but  I  love  my  little  Vaal."  It 
was  the  language  of  his  boyhood. — F.  E.  Emrich, 
D.  D. 

THE  TRUE  AMERICAN 

A  young  man  who  came  to  this  country  young 
enough  to  get  the  benefit  of  our  public  schools, 
and  who  then  took  a  course  in  Columbia  Univer- 
sity, writes:  "Now,  at  twenty-one,  I  am  a  free 
American,  with  only  one  strong  desire,  and  that 
is  to  do  something  for  my  fellow-men,  so  that 
when  my  time  comes  to  leave  the  world,  I  may 
leave  it  a  bit  the  better."  These  are  the  words 
of  a  Russian  Jew;  and  that  Russian  is  a  better 
American,  that  Jew  is  a  better  Christian,  than 
many  a  descendant  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers. 

In  this  country  every  man  is  an  American  who 
has  American  ideals,  the  American  spirit,  Ameri- 
can conceptions  of  life,  American  habits.  A  man 
is  foreign  not  because  he  was  born  in  a  foreign 


APPENDIX  — VI  197 

land,  but  because  he  clings  to  foreign  customs  and 
ideas.  I  do  not  fear  foreigners  half  so  much  as  I 
fear  Americans  who  impose  on  them  and  brutally 
abuse  them.  Such  Americans  are  the  most  dan- 
gerous enemies  to  our  institutions,  utterly  foreign 
to  their  true  spirit.  Such  Americans  are  the  real 
foreigners. — Dr.  Josiah  Strong,  in  Introduction 
to  Aliens  or  Americans? 

THE  DOOR  IS  ALREADY  OPEN 

If  the  question  is  raised  as  to  the  wisdom  and 
fairness  of  proselyting  the  foreigners,  one  reply 
is  that  proselyting  is  seldom  the  case.  The  aver- 
age immigrant  left  his  church  when  he  left  the 
old  home;  escape  from  the  oppressions  of  the 
church,  indeed,  often  impelled  his  going.  But 
where  this  is  not  the  case,  it  seems  a  plain  duty 
to  preach  the  gospel  as  we  hold  it  to  every  crea- 
ture ;  and  it  can  be  no  more  out  of  place  to  seek 
the  evangelization  of  non-Protestants  here  than  in 
foreign  lands.  The  evangelical  denominations 
send  missionaries  to  France,  Italy,  Germany,  and 
Sweden,  as  well  as  to  the  heathen  lands  of  the 
east.  Patriotism  and  religion  unite  in  home 
evangelization.  On  this  point  Dr.  Strong  well 
says : 

There  are  three  great  bonds  which  bind  men  to- 
gether :  community  of  race,  language,  and  religion. 
Religion  is  strongest  of  the  three.  The  Christian  is  in- 
terested in  the  immigrant  as  a  foreigner  and  as  a  man. 
As  foreigner  he  needs  to  be  Americanized ;  as  man  he 
needs  to  be  Christianized  ;  and  to  Christianize  him  is  to 
make  his  assimilation  easy.     Irish  Protestants  are  much 


198     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

more  easily  assimilated  than  Irish  Roman  Catholics. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  French  and  German.  The 
Welsh,  like  the  Scotch,  sink  into  the  great  stream  of 
our  national  life  as  snowflakes  sink  into  a  river,  and 
the  reason  is  that  to  a  man  they  are  earnest  Protestants. 
Many  deem  it  an  impertinence  to  preach  the  gospel  to 
Jews  and  Roman  Catholics.  But  hosts  of  the  latter 
who  come  to  us  are  as  ignorant  of  Christ  and  his  salva- 
tion as  were  the  multitudes  in  the  time  of  Luther. 

FRUITS  OF  PERSONAL  WORK 

The  beginning  of  an  Italian  mission  in  Brook- 
lyn can  be  traced  to  the  giving  of  a  Bible  to  a 
man.  One  evening,  in  the  summer  of  1897,  Mr. 
Giacomo,  an  Italian,  happened  to  be  in  a  shoe- 
maker's shop  on  Roebling  Street,  when  a  stranger 
entered.  He  had  in  his  hand  a  Bible,  which  the 
shoemaker  had  asked  him  to  get.  When  the 
book  was  offered  to  the  shoemaker,  however, 
he  was  afraid  to  accept  it. 

"Give  me  the  Bible,"  said  Mr.  Giacomo,  "I  can- 
not read,  but  my  son  can." 

The  man  took  the  Bible  home,  and  had  his  son 
read  it  for  him.  The  two  became  thoroughly  in- 
terested in  reading  the  Bible,  and  shortly  after- 
ward professed  conversion.  They  did  not  keep 
the  matter  a  secret,  but  gathered  some  of  their 
friends  together  and  began  talking  to  them. 
They  were  not  satisfied  with  the  meagre  informa- 
tion they  were  able  to  obtain  by  themselves,  how- 
ever, and  finally  the  son,  Domenico  Di  Giacomo, 
went  to  Manhattan  in  search  of  some  one  who 
could  explain  the  gospel  more  clearly  to  them. 
He  visited  the  Broome  Street  Tabernacle,  and 


APPENDIX  — VI  199 

persuaded  a  converted  Italian,  a  missionary,  to 
come  to  his  home  and  hold  a  meeting.  The  first 
meeting  was  so  successful  that  others  followed, 
and  they  were  continued  several  months,  until  a 
gentleman  offered  the  use  of  a  floor  in  his  factory 
as  a  meeting  place.  In  the  spring  of  1900,  how- 
ever, it  was  found  that  a  place  more  adapted  to  the 
work  was  needed,  and  the  result  was  a  neat 
chapel,  now  the  centre  of  an  influential  church 
work.  The  foreign  converts  of  all  races  are  full 
of  the  missionary  spirit,  and  put  most  of  us  to 
shame  in  this  respect. 

THE  APOSTOLIC  SPIRIT 

An  Italian  missionary  pays  this  tribute  to  the 
converts  among  his  race :  'T  had  the  privilege 
lately  of  baptizing  Mrs.  Notartomass,  the  first 
Italian  woman  that  has  joined  a  Protestant  church 
here  in  Albany.  Let  us  hope  that  all  the  women 
will  rapidly  break  away  from  their  errors  and  be 
converted  to  the  true  faith  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  was 
once  extremely  difficult  to  reach  the  Italians. 
Now  they  are  beginning  to  understand  the  mat- 
ter, and  their  desire  to  do  and  learn  knows  no 
bounds.  Their  faith  is  marvellous  in  this  age 
when  religious  apathy  is  so  marked.  They  live 
in  an  apostolic  age,  and  every  one  who  has  been 
converted  believes  himself  to  be  a  missionary,  and 
immediately  begins  to  interest  his  friends  far  and 
near  in  the  new  religion." 


200     THE    INCOMING    MILLIONS 

CAN  THE  FOREIGNERS  BE  CONVERTED? 

Talk  about  ingenuity  and  grit !  Read  the  story 
of  the  Italian  converts  at  Monson,  Massachusetts ; 
and  how  one  of  them,  when  they  had  no  meeting 
place,  built  a  room  on  the  roof  of  his  house. 
Then,  when  this  room  was  too  small,  he  enlarged 
a  downstairs  room  for  a  chapel  and  sent  part  of 
his  family  upstairs.  How  many  of  us  would  have 
thought  of  doing  such  a  thing  as  that,  or  would 
have  done  it  if  we  had  thought  of  it?  And  yet 
some  people  ask  if  foreigners  can  be  converted, 
and  if  Italians  who  come  to  this  country  are  worth 
saving ! 

WHAT  DR.  JOEL  S.  IVES  SAYS: 

"It  has  been  forever  established  that  foreigners 
are  as  convertible  as  our  own  people  ;  that  in  many 
instances  their  faith  is  more  pure  and  evangelical 
than  the  American  type  ;  that  their  lives  are  trans- 
formed by  its  power  to  an  extent  that  sometimes 
puts  the  American  Christian  to  shame ;  that  their 
children  are  easily  gathered  into  Sunday  schools, 
their  young  people  into  Endeavor  Societies,  and 
their  men  and  women  into  prayer  meetings,  where 
in  many  different  tongues  they  yet  speak  and 
pray  in  the  language  of  Canaan.  The  immigra- 
tion problem  is  not  the  same  menace  that  it  was. 
A  mighty  solvent  has  been  found." 

WHAT  DR.  CHARLES  L.  THOMPSON  SAYS : 
"There   is   no  need   of  becoming  pessimistic. 
Above  all  we  should  not  go  back  on  the  history 


APPENDIX  — VI  201 

of  our  country.  We  have  grown  great  by  assimi- 
lation. Let  us  have  a  dignified  confidence  in  the 
power  of  our  institutions  and  of  our  Christianity 
to  continue  the  process  which  has  developed  the 
strength  of  the  Republic.  If  we  are  true  to  our 
principles  we  will  be  equal  to  any  strain  that  may 
be  put  upon  them.  Only  let  us  see  to  it  that  our 
principles — both  civic  and  religious — are  at  work 
in  full  vigor  on  the  questions  which  the  fioodtide 
of  immigration  raises.  What  we  need  is  not 
more  bars  to  keep  foreigners  out  but  more  labor- 
ers to  work  with  them  and  teach  them  how  to 
gather  the  harvest  of  American  and  Christian 
liberty." 

"THE  MAN  IN  ALL  MEN" 

Personal  contact  is  essential  for  the  evangel- 
ization of  the  foreigners.  Dr.  E.  E.  Chivers 
pithily  expresses  the  truth  when  he  says,  "We  can- 
not stand  on  a  pedestal  and  hand  people  the  gospel 
at  the  end  of  a  pole."  Jesus  had  a  work  to  do  for 
men,  and  he  went  right  among  them  to  do  it. 
The  gulf  between  the  foreigners  and  ourselves 
is  very  largely  of  our  own  making.  If  he  is 
gathered  in  colonies,  have  we  not  practically 
forced  him  into  them?  Have  we  opened  our 
churches  to  him?  Have  we  not  held  ourselves 
aloof  from  him  and  his,  as  if  he  belonged  to  a  dif- 
ferent race  and  was  beneath  our  notice?  We 
must  change  our  attitude.  We  must  recognize 
"the  man  that  is  in  all  men,"  and  realize  that 


202     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

Jesus  died  for  every  man,  and  that  God  is  no 
respecter  of  persons.  The  Christian  is  in  spirit 
and  sympathy  a  true  cosmopolite. 

A  LEAF  FROM  THE  AUTHOR'S   EXPERIENCE 

The  result  of  my  study,  observation,  and  ex- 
perience is  the  settled  conviction  that  the  Ameri- 
canization and  evangelization  of  the  alien  popu- 
lation must  be  effected  largely  through  personal 
effort.  Laws  can  do  something,  immigration 
societies  can  aid  in  protecting  and  distributing 
the  newcomers,  home  mission  societies  can  pro- 
vide missionaries  and  places  of  worship,  local 
churches  can  make  of  themselves  centres  of 
evangelism  and  helpfulness,  but  there  will  remain 
the  larger  part  of  the  work  of  assimilation  still 
undone.  Only  when  the  individual  men  and 
women  in  the  Christian  churches  recognize  their 
responsibility  and  become  willing  to  do  personal 
work  will  the  task  be  undertaken  with  hope  of 
success. 

The  alien  is  approachable,  accessible,  appre- 
ciative. He  responds  to  kindness  as  the  flower 
opens  to  the  sun.  A  little  thing  goes  a  long 
way.  I  know  by  varied  experience  how  easy  it 
is  to  win  the  confidence  of  the  foreigners.  In 
order  to  test  personally  what  it  was  my  purpose 
to  recommend,  I  have  sought  every  occasion  to 
talk  with  foreigners  of  every  race  within  range. 
They  have  invariably  met  courtesy  with  courtesy, 
and   spoken   frankly,   when  their  knowledge  of 


APPENDIX  — VI  203 

English,  or  mine  of  their  tongue,  permitted. 
Here  is  a  sample  instance : 

On  a  trolley  in  New  York,  I  sat  next  to  a  hand- 
some young  Italian,  with  a  face  that  resembled 
strongly  that  of  the  Neapolitan  boy  in  the  famous 
painting.  The  complexion  was  the  rich  olive, 
the  eye  clear  and  frank.  "How  long  have  you 
been  in  this  country?"  "Nearly  four  years," 
"You  speak  English  very  well,"  for  the  accent 
was  unusually  good.  "Pretty  well,"  with  an  ap- 
preciative smile ;  "I  have  been  in  night  school 
every  year.  I  want  to  learn  many  things." 
"Why  did  you  come  to  America?"  "Make  more 
here.  In  Naples  I  get  only  twenty  cents  a  day ; 
now  I  get  one  dollar  twenty-five."  "What  are 
you  doing?"  "I  drive  a  team.  At  first  I  was 
put  on  the  railroad,  but  I  got  a  better  job  where 
I  could  learn  something.  I  shall  get  dollar  and 
a  half  a  day  pretty  soon."  "But  Italy  is  such  a 
beautiful  country,  don't  you  miss  your  home?" 
"No  work  there^this  beautiful  country,  too." 
"Is  your  family  here  ?"  "One  brother ;  the  others 
are  in  Naples.  We  send  them  money  to  live ; 
they  live  cheap  there."  "Are  you  going  back 
when  you  save  money  enough?"  "To  see  them, 
yes ;  to  stay,  no ;  I  like  it  better  here." 

I  found  that  he  was  thoroughly  American  in 
his  ideas ;  he  had  better  advantages  here,  and  was 
bound  to  study  and  get  ahead.  He  did  not  go  to 
church ;  did  not  care  about  the  priests  over  here, 
and  felt  free  now  to  do  as  he  pleased.     He  was 


204     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

of  the  best  type  of  the  Italians,  healthy,  honest, 
ambitious.  He  had  received  no  schooling  in  Italy, 
but  was  educating  himself  as  rapidly  as  possible, 
and  using  the  night  schools  as  his  opportunity. 
The  few  moments  of  conversation  had  given  me 
his  point  of  view,  had  afforded  chance  to  give  him 
a  few  words  of  kindly  suggestion  about  his  studies 
and  work ;  and  I  felt  sure  that  the  contact  had 
quickened  his  progress  in  assimilation. 

ISOLATION  THE  PERIL 

Do  they  seem  rather  hopeless  cases,  these  for- 
eigners that  are  to  be  seen  everywhere,  in  city  and 
village.  They  will  always  seem  so,  as  long  as  our 
knowledge  of  them  is  at  long  range.  It  would 
be  an  interesting  experiment  and  experience  to 
obtain  some  first-hand  knowledge.  It  would  also 
be  a  bit  of  home  mission  work  that  would  prob- 
ably pay  well. 

Immigrant  isolation  is  a  greater  peril  than 
immigrant  ignorance.  The  only  way  to  prevent 
it  is  to  take  an  interest  in  the  welfare  of  these 
newcomers,  and  be  willing  to  undergo  some  sacri- 
fice to  make  that  interest  known.  When  our 
Protestant  Christianity  exemplifies  everywhere 
the  true  brotherhood  of  believers,  the  foreigner 
will  be  found  receptive  and  responsive,  and  the 
chasm  that  now  separates  will  be  bridged  by  the 
gospel. 

WHAT  WOULD  YOU  DO? 


It  is  wise  to  seek  constantly  to  put  oneself 


in 


APPENDIX  — VI  205 

the  other's  place.  If  you  were  an  immigrant, 
ushered  into  American  life  in  some  crowded  dis- 
trict where  the  saloons  and  vicious  resorts  abound, 
what  would  your  impressions  of  America  be? 
Accustomed  to  stately  and  beautiful  churches  in 
your  own  country,  although  not  very  eager  to  go 
to  church  here,  since  now  free,  what  would  there 
be  to  attract  you  in  the  humble  and  often  dingy 
and  unwholesome  environment  of  a  mission 
chapel  ?  If  by  chance  you  went  once  to  a  strange 
service,  would  you  be  likely  to  go  again?  What 
could  counteract  in  you  the  frequent  contempt 
and  scorn  and  ridicule  you  could  not  escape  ?  See 
this  from  the  immigrant's  point  of  view,  and  let 
the  thought  prevent  you  from  adding  to  his 
burdens. 

THE  HAND  OF  GOD 

We  shall,  however,  miss  the  main  point  in  a 
study  of  the  immigration  problem  if  we  do  not 
see  that  the  hand  of  God  is  in  it.  No  matter 
what  motive  prompts  the  Jew  from  Russia,  or  the 
Neapolitan  and  Sicilian  from  Italy,  or  the  Huns 
and  Poles  from  their  lands  of  oppression,  to  come 
here,  underneath  it  all  is  the  impulse  of  divine 
Providence.  God  is  calling  you  and  me  to  evan- 
gelize these  people,  and  so  that  we  may  not  over- 
look our  duty  he  is  bringing  them  here  to  us. 
So  that  we  may  find  it  easier  to  fulfil  our  duty 
He  is  setting  them  down  at  our  very  doors.  We 
can  reach  them  here  as  we  could  not  in  their  own 
lands. — F.  M.  Goodchild,  D.  D. 


20«     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

PABL\GRAPHS  TO   QUOTE  AND   THINK 
ABOUT 

When  we  have  learned  to  smile  and  weep  with 
the  poor,  we  shall  have  mastered  our  problem. 
Then  the  slum  will  have  lost  its  grip  and  the  boss 
his  job. — Jacob  Riis. 

Woman  should  become  the  conscience  of  what- 
ever sphere  of  society  she  enters,  whether  the 
business,  literary,  philanthropic,  reform,  or  social. 
Her  hands,  like  the  Master's,  are  beautiful  for 
their  ministries.  In  the  world  of  reform, 
woman's  hand  is  ever  present. 

America  holds  the  future.  If  America  fails, 
the  world  will  fail.  The  battle  lost  at  home,  our 
cause  is  slain  abroad. — E.  B.  Hulburt,  D.  D. 

The  priests  rightly  fear  Protestant  influence. 
A  friend  in  Albany,  writing  of  the  Italian  work 
there,  says :  "I  learned  from  a  bright  Italian  boy 
who  brings  fruit  to  my  door  that  the  priests 
are  much  disturbed,  and  have  given  strict  orders 
that  their  people  are  not  to  go  to  the  Protestant 
church  services  on  Sunday  afternoon.  He  also 
told  me  that  the  priest  over  in  Italy  had  written 
to  his  brother  that  he  must  not  let  the  boy  go  to 
these  missions  in  America.  But  the  Italians  will 
go,  as  they  breathe  the  breath  of  liberty  and  find 
how  good  it  is." 

Nothing  will  take  the  place  of  personal  service. 
It  is  not  possible  to  emphasize  too  strongly  the 


APPENDIX  — VI  207 

words  of  the  late  Dr.  Howard  Crosby:  "Our 
city  can  only  be  evangelized  when  every  Chris- 
tian citizen  becomes  an  evangelist."  For  "our 
city"  substitute  your  city,  town,  or  village,  and 
the  words  will  hold  as  true. 

Home  and  foreign  missions  are  inseparably 
interlinked.  A  Chinese  missionary  in  New  York, 
Fung  Yuet  Mow,  says  that  at  a  missionary  con- 
ference which  he  attended  in  Canton,  China,  there 
were  fifty  missionaries  present,  native  Chinese, 
and  half  of  them  were  converted  in  our  missions 
in  America,  and  returned  home  to  seek  the  con- 
version of  their  people.  Everywhere  he  met  the 
influence  of  Chinese  who  found  Christ  in  this 
country.  Every  foreigner  converted  in  America 
becomes  a  missionary  influence  abroad. 

BIBLE  READINGS 

(To  accompany  chapters  as  numbered) 
I 

A  Refuge  for  the  Nations.    Isa.  25 : 4-9 ;  49 : 8-12. 

II 

The  Land  of  Hope.    Deut.  11 :  10-12. 

The  Conditions  of  Inheritance.     Deut.  11 :  18-21 ; 

26-28. 

Ill 
Newcomers  in  a  New  Home.    Psalms  107 :  23-43. 

IV 
The  Source  of  Blessings.     Psalms  65 :  5-13. 


208     THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

V 

The  Citizenship  of  the  "New  Earth."     Rev.  21 : 
24-27 ;  22  :  14. 

VI 

"Who  Is  My  Neighbor  ?"    Luke  10 :  25-37. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

I 

1.  Tell  the  story  related  in  the  preface. 

2.  Describe  the  work  of  the  officials  at  Ellis 
Island. 

3.  Describe  the  Immigrant's  progress  through 
the  Immigrant  station. 

4.  What  radical  changes  in  Immigration  are 
taking  place? 

5.  What  lessons  have  those  changes  for  us? 

6.  State  the  principal  reasons  for  Immigration. 

II 

1.  What  classes  of  Immigrants  are  excluded 
by  law  ? 

2.  What  difficulties  do  inspectors  find  in  en- 
forcing these  laws? 

3.  How  and  where  are  Immigrants  smuggled 
into  the  country? 

4.  What  becomes  of  those  excluded? 

5.  How  does  the  matter  of  distribution  affect 
Immigrant  Problems? 

6.  What  special  interest  has  the  South  in  these 
questions  ? 


APPENDIX  — VI  209 

III 

1.  What  is  the  common  opinion  of  Americans 
concerning  the  Immigrants  from  Southern  Eu- 
rope? 

2.  Give  the  brighter  side  of  the  subject  of  Ital- 
ian immigration  as  regards  (i),  trade,  (2)  crimes, 
(3)  drinking  habits,  (4)  thrift,  (5)  industry,  (6) 
wealth. 

3.  Who  are  the  Slavs? 

4.  Describe  Jewish  traits  and  conditions  as  seen 
in  this  country. 

IV 

1.  Give  incidents  illustrating  the  need  of 
Americanizing  and  Christianizing  the  foreigners 
in  our  country. 

2.  How  is  American  religious  life  affected  by 
the  incoming  aliens? 

3.  How  does  child  labor  become  a  factor  in 
the  problems  of  American  citizenship  ? 

4.  Make  personal  application  by  learning  about 
the  "Little  Germanys,"  etc.,  in  your  own  com- 
munity. 

5.  What  is  being  done  to  Americanize  and 
Christianize  the  foreigners  in  your  own  vicinity? 

V 

1.  Through  what  women's  organizations  is 
work  being  done  for  alien  women? 

2.  What  is  your  own  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety doing  for  immigrant  women? 


910    THE    INCOMING   MILLIONS 

3.  What  results  have  come  from  the  organized 
efforts  of  women  in  correcting  evils  and  securing 
reforms  ? 

4.  Where  should  individual  effort  begin? 

5.  Give  illustrations  of  such  effort. 

6.  Does  your  own  church  welcome  "aliens  and 
strangers"  ? 

7.  What  part  of  this  work  can  be  done  by  every 
Christian  woman? 

8.  What  is  the  responsibility  of  Christian 
womanhood  in  this  matter? 

VI 

1.  Give  items  of  hope  for  the  future. 

2.  How  do  the  children  constitute  a  key  to  the 
problem  ? 

3.  What  is  being  done  through  evening  schools 
and  other  agencies,  to  reach  adults  ? 

4.  What  is  said  about  the  spread  of  atheism? 

5.  Describe  agricultural  experiments  that  have 
been  made. 

6.  How  may  immigrant  homes  be  reached,  and 
by  whom? 


VII 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 

For  collateral  reading  the  following  books  are 
both  interesting  and  valuable: 


APPENDIX  — VII  211 

Aliens  or  Americans?  Howard  B.  Grose.  The  Home 
Mission  Text  Book  for  study  classes ;  1906.  Pub- 
lished by  the  Denominational  Home  Mission  Boards. 
50  cents.  A  comprehensive  treatment  of  immigra- 
tion from  the  Christian  point  of  view. 

The  Alien  Immigrant.  W.  Evans  Gordon.  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.  $1.50.  Describes  the 
Hebrews  in  European  countries,  with  chapter  on 
situation  in  the  United  States. 

Americans  in  Process.  Robert  A.  Woods.  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.  $1.50.  A  series  of 
papers  by  workers  in  the  South  End  House  in 
Boston,  Mass. 

Anthracite  Coal  Communities.  Peter  Roberts.  The 
Macmillian  Company,  New  York.  $3.50.  A  study 
of  the  anthracite  regions  and  the  Slavs,  similar  in 
character  to  Dr.  Warne's  book. 

Coming  Americans.  Katherine  R.  Crowell.  Willett 
Press,  New  York.  Paper,  25  cents ;  Cloth,  35 
cents.  A  book  for  Juniors,  putting  in  attractive 
form  for  children  and  teachers  of  children  the  lead- 
ing features  of  immigration. 

Emigration  and  Immigration.  Richmond  Mayo-Smith. 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.  $1.50.  An 
exceedingly  valuable  and  scholarly  work. 

How  the  Other  Half  Lives.  Jacob  Riis.  Charles  Scrib- 
ner's Sons,  New  York.  $1.25,  net.  Descriptive  of 
the  conditions  in  which  the  foreign  population 
struggles  for  existence. 

Immigration.  Prescott  F.  Hall.  Henry  Holt  &  Co., 
New  York.  $1.50.  The  latest  volume  of  compre- 
hensive character,  taking  the  restrictive  position. 
The  author  is  secretary  of  the  Immigration  Re- 
striction League. 

Imported  Americans.  Broughton  Brandenburg.  F.  A. 
Stokes,  New  York.  $1.60.  Description  of  experi- 
ences while  making  personal  investigations  in  New 
York,  Italy,  and  the  steerage,  of  immigration 
problems. 


212     THE   INCOMING   MILLIONS 

The  Italian  in  America.  Eliot  Lord,  J.  J.  D.  Trenor, 
and  S.  Barrows.  B.  F.  Buck  &  Co,  New  York. 
$1.50.  Makes  an  exceedingly  favorable  showing  for 
the   Italians;    somewhat   one-sided,   but   valuable. 

Our  Peoples  of  Foreign  Speech.  Samuel  McLanahan. 
Fleming  H.  Revell  Company,  New  York.  50  cents, 
net.  A  handbook  containing  many  valuable  facts  in 
compact  form. 

Our  Country.  Josiah  Strong.  Baker  &  Taylor  Com- 
pany, New  York.  60  cents.  The  points  made  in 
the  chapter  on  Immigration  are  as  pertinent  now 
as  when  the  book  was  issued  in  1881. 

On  the  Trail  of  the  Immigrant.  Edward  A.  Steiner. 
i2mo,  cloth,  illustrated.    $1.50,  net. 

The  Problem  of  the  Immigrant.  J.  D.  Whelpley. 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  New  York.  $4.20.  Deal- 
ing with  the  emigration  and  immigration  laws  of 
all  nations. 

The  Russian  Jew  in  the  United  States.  Charles  S. 
Bernheimer,  Editor.  B.  F.  Buck  &  Co.,  New  York. 
$1.50.     A  partial,  but  interesting  account. 

The  Slav  Invasion.  Julian  F.  Warne.  J.  B.  Lippin- 
cott  Co.,  Philadelphia,  Pa.  $1.00,  net.  Study  at 
first  hand  of  conditions  in  Pennsylvania  mining 
regions  and  the  Slav  population. 

The  Twentieth  Century  City.  Josiah  Strong.  Baker  & 
Taylor  Company,  New  York.  Paper.  25  cents; 
Cloth,  50  cents.  Has  the  breadth  of  view  and  ef- 
fectiveness which  belong  to  the  author. 

Undistinguished  Americans.  Hamilton  Holt,  Editor. 
James  Pott  &  Co.,  New  York.  $1.50.  Biographical 
and  readable. 


Princeton   Theological   Seminary   Libraries 


1    1012   01235   2151 


Date  Due 


r--  r     ■ 

,„,^,V-«^-JH*»^*- 

^^'WHiBHIPwwiiiMM 

,i;jVW«a""*^ 

jr  «;A*>kt£A  A'i)'.S«^y 

1 

f) 

